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Wait 2 More Years for Garia Metro

By sachiv1, Section Kolkata Metro
Posted on Thu Apr 12, 2007 at 05:38:51 AM EST

Officials Cite Land Acquisition Problems For Delay, Fear Cost Overrun

Metro Railway general manager Sudha Chobe said extension of service from Tollygunge to New Garia may take two more years.

However, efforts are being made to run a truncated service up to Pranab Nagar (the penultimate station on the route, which will henceforth be called Briji) by March 2008. Due to shortage of rakes, trains between Briji and Tollygunge will run at 30-minute intervals, chief operations manager J K Mitra said.

“We should not be blamed for the delay as there is a problem with land acquisition. There has been no appellate authority since October 31, 2006. Of the 130,423 sq meters of private land required, only 50,212 sq meters have been acquired till date. Many landowners have not been able to produce documents as proof of ownership. I have already taken up the issue with the
state chief secretary,” Chobe said.

According to the officials, of the 182 cases, 137 have been decided while there are disputes over ownership rights in the remaining 45. Of the 137 landowners, 55 had preferred to appeal before the appellate authority. Thirty-five of these have been disposed of while the remaining are pending. In two cases, landowners have moved the high court.

“It will take at least 15 more months to complete the project after the land acquisition process is over. New tenders will have to be floated and contractors engaged. We expect a 10% escalation in material cost due to this delay,” Chobe added. Even if the extension is completed, the service would not be too frequent. Four of the seven new rakes, for which orders have been placed, will arrive only in mid-2008. The remaining will arrive by December, 2009.

“By this time, some of our existing rakes will have to be scrapped. So, we will not have more rakes. It will be 2009-10 before replacements start arriving,” the GM said.

The only bit of good news is that Rites will start a survey of a new 11-km route from Dum Dum to Baranagar soon. Chobe, however, made it clear that Metro has not made any progress in working as an implementing agency for the proposed East-West corridor from Howrah to Rajarhat.

Chobe has also written to the Railway Board for permission to increase fares. The proposed across the board increase will be Re 1.

For the first time in its history, Metro has earned Rs 11.10 crore from advertisements, rent and other sources (except passenger earnings). In spite of this, the annual working loss continues to hover around Rs 36 crore.

“Our only source of revenue is from the sale of tickets. Passenger fares have not gone up since 1998. We have requested the board to bring the fares on a par with other modes of transport. Initially, there may be a fall in the number of passengers, but people will still prefer to use the most comfortable mode of transport,” Chobe said.

(Source-Times Of India, 12/04/07)

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