Delays push up costs for Chennai Metro.

The project cost of the first phase of the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) has escalated by nearly Rs. 5,400 crore to Rs. 20,000 crore as per 2014 price estimate. This was mainly due to delay in land acquisition, which led to slow progress in the project, according to CMRL officials.

The escalation means the cost to construct every km of Chennai metro rail increased to Rs. 444 crore as against Rs. 324 crore as per the price level of 2007 when the project was sanctioned. Out of the total project cost, the Central and state governments share 20 per cent each, and the balance through soft loan from Japan International Corporation Agency.

'The cost escalation was beyond our control,' VK Singh, Chief General Manager (Underground Construction), CMRL, told BusinessLine. The cost of underground construction is nearly three times that of an elevated structure, he said.

The metro rail project is expected to ease road congestion in the city. It will have two stretches linking important locations in the city, including North Chennai, Central Railway Station, Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminal at Koyambedu to the airport in the southern suburb of Chennai.

Singh said running trains on trials in the underground stretch between Koyambedu and Egmore is likely to commence in June or July. 'Our target is to start regular train operations in the underground section by 2015-end,' he said.

On Saturday morning the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke the last piece of the wall at Thirumangalam station at 11.45 am to mark the completion of the tunnel mining between Thirumangalam and Shenoy Nagar.

This project contracted to Transtonnelstroy-Afcons joint venture was the first underground stretch (in both direction) to be completed among the five packages given to various consortium.


HBL