Projects delayed, costs go up for Delhi Metro

The cost of construction of at least nine projects related to the Delhi Metro’s network has escalated by almost 15 per cent due to alleged delays in environmental clearance, it is learnt. Critical corridors that are part of Phase-IV of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), government sources said quoting approximations gathered from the DMRC, were running behind schedule for periods between three months to almost three years, pushing the combined cost of their construction up to over Rs 120.48 billion from initial estimates of around Rs 104.79 billion. The reason for the delay has been attributed to lack permission from the Delhi government’s environment department; files related to around 9 such projects were pending with the department till as recently as December last year. According to sources, the projects are part of the Janakpuri to RK Ashram, Aerocity to Tughlakabad and Maujpur to Majlis Park corridors; the combined cost overrun for all the projects is around Rs 16 billion. Due to the delays, a senior official explained, fresh bids for construction had to be called as per the re-tendering of work on these corridors on more occasions than one. The project with the lowest delay, of over three months, is the construction of an underground ramp at Krishna Park Extension over a stretch of 2.01 km with an initial cost of an estimated Rs 4.89 billion. Following the delay, the hiked total cost of construction is now estimated to have gone up to over Rs 5.50 billion, the official said. Also Read Housing scheme may get 300,000 million in Telangana budget Rajasthan to have 13 new industrial areas