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The East-West metro corridor project in Kolkata will turn “financially-unviable” if it has to accept a new route to overcome land acquisition issues.
The 15-km proposed metro rail link, which will connect IT city Salt Lake with Kolkata’s twin city Howrah, is running nearly two years behind schedule and will not meet the end-2014 deadline.
According to the executing agency Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), two-thirds of the project work is still pending.
The West Bengal Government last year proposed a change in the original route map to avert relocation of 250 shops and a few residential apartments on a half-km stretch near central Kolkata.
“Changing alignment at this stage will have a detrimental effect on the project. Also, the Rs 4,874-crore urban rail project will lose its financial viability,” H.K. Sharma, Managing Director, KMRC, told Business Line .
Alignment issues
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the senior-term debtor of the project principal (funding Rs 2,253 crore), has firmly opposed any change in route plan. “JICA has even told KMRC that it would withdraw from the project if the metro line is constructed on a new route.
The Bengal Government has recently offloaded its 50 per cent equity stake from KMRC to the Indian Railways. The company was formed by the Union Urban Development Ministry and the State Government. According to Sharma, even if the project has been taken over by the Railways, it requires support from the State government to commission the metro line.
RITES, an engineering consultancy arm of the Railways, has already submitted a draft report on the feasibility of the proposed new route. However, Sharma alleged that the study was incomplete as the Government did not allow the agency to study the feasibility in entirety.
“We have sent the draft report to the State Government, underlining the findings that a re-alignment would be unviable for the project. We are awaiting the State’s response,” he added.
Projected completion
According to Sharma, the project is about 30 per cent complete currently. While the first phase — a 9-km stretch from Salt Lake to Sealdah — is expected to be operational by end-2015, KMRC does not have a projection yet for the second phase connecting Howrah through a 700-metre tunnel under Hooghly river.
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