Green-light Metro stretches, state urges railway board

  • | Monday | 18th June, 2018

KOLKATA: Two stretches of Metro — from Mominpore to Esplanade in the Joka-Esplanade alignment and from the airport to New Barrackpore of the Noapara-Barasat route are in limbo because the railway board hasn’t yet approved the ‘material modification’ of the stretches. This plan change requires a cost escalation, which also requires a railway board sanction. Metro Railway has estimated the cost after some alterations to the plan and sent it to the railway board for approval, said a senior state government officer.An additional station is also being planned. In the original plan, there had been two stations on the stretch: Birati and New Barrackpore. The chief secretary, in his letter, proposed to start by extending the link to New Barrackpore, a 3.5km stretch from the airport.

KOLKATA: Two stretches of Metro — from Mominpore to Esplanade in the Joka-Esplanade alignment and from the airport to New Barrackpore of the Noapara-Barasat route are in limbo because the railway board hasn’t yet approved the ‘material modification’ of the stretches. A worried chief secretary recently wrote to the board to expedite the process as the state has cleared all roadblocks.‘Material modification,’ in railways jargon, refers to projects that past railway ministers had sanctioned through the rail budget through an executive order, without the Planning Commission’s approval. It also refers to changes agreed upon by the railways, which requires the board’s approval for implementation.The chief secretary, in his letter addressed to the chairman of the railway board, has urged him to approve the changes that had been agreed upon by both the executing agency and the board, saying no construction could be undertaken because the modifications hadn’t been approved.On the airport-Barasat stretch, the original plan was to have an elevated track from Noapara to Barasat . But since safety norms of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) do not allow for construction of high structures along flight paths, the tracks will now be underground. This plan change requires a cost escalation, which also requires a railway board sanction. The chief secretary, in his letter, proposed to start by extending the link to New Barrackpore, a 3.5km stretch from the airport. There is no encroachment on this stretch. Metro Railway has estimated the cost after some alterations to the plan and sent it to the railway board for approval, said a senior state government officer.An additional station is also being planned. In the original plan, there had been two stations on the stretch: Birati and New Barrackpore. In the revived project, a station has been proposed at Michael Nagar.Similarly, in the 6.5km Majherhat-Esplanade stretch of the Joka-Esplanade Metro, the state government proactively cleared major roadblocks after continuous dialogue with the defence establishment. The MoD has not only given permission to construct a station at Mominpore on the Command Hospital premises, but has also allowed an underground tunnel near Turf View, the residential complex for defence personnel.The entire alignment was originally supposed to have run on an elevated corridor. But a major objection came from Fort William. This led to a change in the alignment from Mominpore to Esplanade, from elevated to underground. This change also requires an approval from the railway board.The ministry has said in the letter that permission was being given to build stations near Victoria Memorial, Park Street and Esplanade and tunnels to lay the tracks. In the Maidan area, the tunnels and stations will be underground. But the ministry of railways will have to take clearances from Calcutta HC and the ministries of culture and environment before going ahead with construction.

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