"Namma metro" proves expensive: Delay costs Rs 50 lakh a day

Bangalore, May 27: Bangalore's "namma metro" project has till now missed three deadlines adding to the woes of traffic situation in the city.

It is estimated that the delay in the project is costing taxers payers around Rs 50 lakh every day. According to industry experts the figure calculated shows that the cost of the project which is around Rs 8550 crore, will be around Rs 13,000 crore when it will be completed 3 years later.

"They keep on giving dates and say we are going to start it. It's now become a nightmare. It will not start in time. Phase 1, which was being delayed, may now finally open in Sep, and then they need to get a lot of clearances like fire safety and oscillations tests also," said M N Sreehari, Karnataka government Infrastructure Advisor.

The stumbling block that the metro project faces right now is the tunneling process. According to critics, these factors should have been already planned before the project started.

"They could have definitely averted it by proper planning and vision, they planned it as a special purpose vehicle but they could have plugged the costs if they had a clear plan on how they were going to do it," said Sreehari.

Metro officials insist that the project will meet deadlines.

"The people who work with us are international expats. Delhi metro is our primary consultant. I don't think there has been any lack of planning. We are all on time," said BL Chavan, a spokesperson with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.

OneIndia News