Kolkata, (Samajweekly) The work for the extension of the Kolkata East-West Metro project connecting the suburbs with the city is not progressing as per schedule because of the delay in the release of funds by the West Bengal government, which is supposed to bear 50 per cent of the cost for the extension work, the Railways said.
A highly-placed official in the Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited (KMRCL), a Government of India enterprise which is the implementing authority for the East-West Metro project, said that although the cost of the extension project connecting the suburbs with the city is supposed to be borne in a 50:50 ratio by the Centre and the state government, the latter so far has not given any indication as to when it will release its share of funds.
“If the state government conveys to us that it will not be able to shell out its share of expenditure, we will inform that to the Railway Board, which will decide over the next course of action,” he added.
Already, the East-West Metro project has witnessed time and cost overruns since the time of its implementation because of the change of tunnel route.
The first change in the tunnel route plan was brought in 2014, which resulted in an extension of the route by 1.87 km. Hence, the project cost escalated from the initial estimate of Rs 4,874 crore to Rs 8,996 crore, resulting in a cost escalation of Rs 4,122 crore.
Accordingly, the loan assistance for the project from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) also increased. It has been learnt that initially, both KMRCL and JICA were against this tunnel route change keeping the cost overrun in mind.
