Kolkata: Delay in land acquisition
and getting clearances, coupled with route realignment and foreign currency
losses, has hit the East West Metro project hard. The ambitious project to
connect the eastern part of Kolkata to the west across the Hooghly river over a
16.6 km stretch has seen a cost overrun of 80 percent to nearly Rs 9,000 crore
in almost eight years, as against the original estimate of Rs 4,900 crore. The
project was sanctioned in July 2008.
To be carried out in two phases, East
West Metro will connect the IT hub of Sector V to Howrah, Kolkata's twin city,
as per EXIN Time’s knowledge. Part of the project passes under the Hooghly
river. It will have six elevated and six underground stations. Kolkata Metro
Rail Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) is the implementing agency.
“The revised cost of the two-phase
project now stands at Rs 8,996.96 crore. Route realignment and devaluation of
the rupee to other foreign currencies are some reasons of this rising cost,”
Satish Kumar, Managing Director, KMRCL, said.
Incidentally, East West Metro was
slated to be operational by 2012. The first phase ran into problems over a
350-metre stretch in east Kolkata (called Duttabad) after slum-dwellers there
refused to vacate the land. The issue has now been resolved.
According to Kumar, the first phase
of the project connecting a 9.4-km stretch from Sector V to Central Kolkata is
now scheduled to be completed by June, 2018. Over 50 percent of the work is
completed. “There is some probability of us completing the first phase before
time,” he added. The second phase, where just six per cent of the work has been
completed, is expected to be operational by August 2019. This stretch was
dogged by major problems.
The route was said to be running
close to Raj Bhavan and other heritage buildings. It was also passing through
the busy Central Business District area and hence construction there was a
problem. This necessitated a route realignment; and an additional cost burden
of approximately Rs 800 crore.
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