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Delay pushes Metro cost up 7 crore a day
LUCKNOW: As the proposed Metro rail project in the city fails to cross the planning stage, its escalating cost has hit the roof. With the delay of each passing day adding an additional burden of Rs 7 crore to the cost, the project will become unviable if not started immediately, caution experts.
Union urban development minister Kamal Nath on Thursday slammed the BSP government for the tardy progress of the project conceptualized three years ago. The UP government has chosen not to react to Kamal Nath's charges. UP's housing minister, Naseemuddin Siddiqui told TOI: "Whatever we have done is on record. I can't comment without checking facts." Government sources privy to the developments pertaining to the project, however, confirmed that the cost of the project was indeed the biggest hurdle.
Going by the UP government records, the estimated cost of project rose by around Rs 227 crore every month between January and July when the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) submitted its detailed project report. A brief summary on the project prepared by the high-level committee of the state government in January estimated the cost of the project at Rs 11,077 crore. This escalated to Rs 12,671 crore by July, which is well over Rs 1,500 crore. The rise was ostensibly because of the rise in taxes and duties, besides the rise in the cost of cement, steel and other essential materials.
When the project was conceptualized in September 2008, the project was pegged at Rs 8,200 crore. It was amended from time to time during the gradual course of consultation with the DMRC which was asked to prepare a detailed project report by the state government in 2009. The DMRC submitted the DPR in July this year. DMRC chairman E Shreedharan in recent interview to TOI said that on an average the cost of the project will rise heavily.
Any further delay, not surprisingly, may derail the project, giving ample opportunity to the Centre and the opposition to lambast the government on development issues. The project has already snowballed into a political controversy with Kamal Nath squarely charging the UP government of not taking adequate steps to set the project on track.
The UP government is still not certain how to finance the project. Earlier, the project was conceptualized on the DMRC model under which 50% of the finances are made available by the Centre while the rest is provided by the state, which may also raise funds by entering into an agreement with private players and forming a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The model, which has been adopted by Hyderabad, would require the state government to shell out at least Rs 6,000 crore. But the state government did not make any provisions in the supplementary budget that was put forth in the state assembly in August earlier this year.
The public private partnership (PPP), is another model that the state government has been considering for quite some time. But that will again be a challenging task considering adequate footfalls to sustain the project. "The rate of return needs to be not less than 12%. If it is less than that the project would be termed financially unviable,'' said a senior government official closely associated with the project.
However, sources said that the state government has informed the DMRC that it intends to start the project by March 2012, with the first leg getting completed by 2017.
Delay pushes Metro cost up 7 crore a day - The Times of India
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