Namma Metro on schedule: BMRCL

Namma Metro on schedule: BMRCL
By S Praveen Dhaneshkar, DH News Service, Bangalore:
Hurdles notwithstanding, the Rs 6,395-crore Namma Metro project will be completed on schedule by December 2010, Urban Development Ministry Secretary and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Chairman Dr Dr M Ramachandran has declared.

After reviewing the progress made by the BMRCL, Dr Ramachandran told Deccan Herald on Sunday that the corporation was confident of completing the work as per schedule.

Even if some major unforeseen hurdles come up, the first stretch between M Chinnaswamy Stadium and Byappanahalli would be thrown open to the public on time, he emphasised.

Emphatic assertion
The assertion comes close on the heels of BMRCL MD N Sivasailam disclosing that the project was behind schedule by at least nine months. Dr Ramachandra categorically said: “With an equity share of 15 per cent (Rs 959.25 crore) in the mass urban transit project, the Ministry of Urban Development (MUD), is as keen as the State government to complete and deliver the project on time by December 2010.”

“The effort is to meet the deadline, but it would depend on various factors like making land available, good contractors who can deliver in time, evaluation of tenders, construction of massive metro stations and depots to conduct pre-commissioning trial runs. We are hopeful of completing it against all odds,” he pointed out. Admitting that problems existed in the implementation stage, he said, “implementing huge infrastructure projects such as the metro rail, is not a simple proposition. We have to draw lessons from Delhi Metro. In Bangalore, more of private land had to be acquired. There is a process involved in it, the compensation package etc. The project document may not have captured all these ground realities and minute details that go into before the project takes shape.”

On the implementation speed, he said, “One cannot have the best possible ground situation in every city... For a city that has not seen a metro, it is a time taking process.”