West Bengal has set up a high-power committee, headed by Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra, to suggest measures to remove hurdles plaguing the Rs 4,874-crore East-West metro corridor project in Kolkata.

To be built on loan finance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the 15-km proposed metro rail link — connecting IT city Salt Lake with Kolkata’s twin city Howrah — has been delayed by two years due to land acquisition hurdles in central Kolkata. Of the total length of the metro link, construction work on 6 km elevated stretch (between Phool Bagan and Salt Lake Sector V) is almost complete.

To avoid the land acquisition hurdle, the State Government proposed re-alignment of the route. However, the proposal was declined by JICA.

“The committee should start dealing with the hurdles after Durga Puja, in the second week of October,” H. K. Sharma, Managing Director, Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the executing agency of the project, told Business Line . Sharma is the member secretary of the committee.

According to Sharma, the committee would take a fresh look into the issue to help expedite project work, especially on the Howrah end. Underground tunnelling work could not be started on a nearly 5-km stretch between the proposed Howrah Maidan and Central stations for more than a year, since KMRC could not take a final decision on the re-alignment issue. A joint venture of Afcons and Transtonellstroy is the contractor for this underground portion.

Meanwhile, according to a source involved with the project, the Afcons and Transtonellstroy JV contractor has submitted a proposal to KMRC to start tunnelling work under Hooghly river immediately, without waiting for the re-alignment issue to be resolved.

>ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in

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