Pawan derails Didi’s Metro projects

Feb 27, 2013 |

Age Correspondent

With the Congress getting a chance to present the Railway Budget after 17 years, railway minister Pawan Bansal has derailed almost all the Metro railway projects of his predecessor Mamata Banerjee which she bestowed with mammoth allocation during her two-year stint with the ministry.

The various Kolkata Metro Railway projects saw a dramatic decline in fund allocation in Mr Bansal’s budget, clearly indicating that the Centre was unhappy with the uncertain delay in commissioning the projects.
All the four Metro expansion projects that envisage to add around 85 km to the existing 25.20 km Metro network in the city have been allocated only `475 crore in the 2013-14 Railway Budget. In the 2011-12 and 2012-13 Railway Budgets, these projects had been allocated `6,000 crore and `4,000 crore respectively.
Mr Bansal’s budget did found the mention of the Dum Dum-Noapara Metro link which is a part of the Noapara-Dum Dum-Barasat project when the Railway minister mentioned that the link is scheduled to be completed by March 2013. However, the entire project cost is estimated at `2,397 crore, but only `170 crore was allocated unlike 2012’s allocation of `1,050 crore. It is another matter that almost 80 per cent of the funds could not be utilised.
The fate remains the same for other three Metro projects which Ms Banerjee visioned to link the entire city of Kolkata with the suburbs. The New Garia-Airport, Joka-BBD Bag and Dum Dum-Baranagar-Dakshineswar-Barrackpore projects have got curtailed budget of `45 crore, `250 crore and `10 crore respectively. In 2012-13, the budget allocation was around `750 crore, `602 crore and `1,050 crore. However, as none of the projects saw any significant development mostly due to land acquisition problems, the fund went back.
Meanwhile, with the railway ministry taking over majority stake in Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation (KMRC), there is a fear that even its East-West Metro where latest modern technology is being used might meet the same fate as that of Kolkata Metro projects.
Although `100 crore has been allocated in the budget for the project, this too is facing land acquisition problem as some of the land losers have moved Calcutta high court to get back their lands.
All the four Metro projects were scheduled to be commissioned by 2015-16 which now seems to be a distant dream.
Minister of state for Railway Adhir Chowdhury, however, blamed the state government’s non-cooperation for the delay in the projects. “The problem is land acquisition. After the Trinamul Congress quit UPA, they don’t care about the projects. Without the state government’s cooperation, it is difficult to implement the projects. This is why fund is going back,” Mr Chowdhury said.

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