Construction work on seven elevated Metro stations in New Town area gathers steam

Kolkata: Work for construction of seven elevated stations within a 7 km stretch in New Town area – an integral part of the New Garia–Kolkata Airport metro project has started in full swing

Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) the executing agency of the 32 km metro corridor had initially awarded the contract to IL& FS in 2014 but had to abandon the same in December 2018 as the company became bankrupt.

After a considerable period of time, the contract was handed over to Simplex but the latter too went into liquidity.

"There has been a lot of delay due to these issues of contractors. Ultimately we have awarded the contract to ITD after they emerged as the lowest bidder during this Covid pandemic period. They have started work and are mobilising their resources to begin work at

all the seven stations. The stations are partially ready and so we are hopeful completing the balance work in the next two years," said a senior RVNL official.

Sources in RVNL said that IL& FS could come up only with the structures of the stations though they bagged the contract in March 2014. They were extremely slow in executing work though they were supposed to finish it in three years time and missed the 2017 deadline.

The seven metro stations along this stretch are Titumir station adjacent to City Centre II, Central Business District (CBD) I (infront of Hidco Convention Centre), Kalakhetra, Convention Centre (infront of Eco Park), New Town, Sub CBD II and Sub CBD I near Novotel hotel.

A total of 24 elevated stations will come up on the New Garia- Airport project. RVNL has plans to start operation of the first phase from the

terminal Kavi Subhas station to Hemanta Mukherjee station at the Ruby crossing from 2022.