Soon, tender for construction of depot at Joka

Kolkata: The Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) is floating tender for construction of the depot at Joka in connection with the Joka BBD Bag Metro project on July 31.

The Railway Board in the first week of July had given the nod to RVNL to initiate the process of construction of the depot. However, 15 per cent of the 24.5 hectare land needed for the depot is yet to be acquired RVNL.

A senior RVNL official said that construction of the depot had started in February 2019 but it has not been able to pick up the desired pace due to non availability of the entire land.

"There are some illegal occupants of the depot land and they are insisting upon vacating the land only if of they are offered compensation, said the official.

RVNL has already completed construction of six stations from Joka to Taratala that includes Joka, Thakurpukur, Sakherbazar, Behala Chowrasta, Behala Bazar and Taratala stations. The viaducts in the stretch have all been completed The track laying work in this 9 km stretch is going on in full swing. RVNL has plans to kick off the first phase of the project from Joka to Taratala by the end of 2021.

RVNL has already floated tender for engaging a general consultant for the underground part of the metro corridor from Mominpore to Esplanade. The Railway Board has recently given the nod for the viaduct till Mominpore. The elevated portion of the metro will be till Mominpore from where the metro corridor will go underground. There will be four stations in the underground alignment -Kidderpore, Victoria, Park Street and Esplanade.

The major delay in the project has been in the construction of the station at Majerhat. Since the caving in of Majerhat bridge in September 2018, there has been very little progress in the metro project except for the piling work " The Majerhat station is of prime importance as it will be a passenger interface with suburban trains and circular railways," the official added. The entire stretch from Joka to BBD Bagh of 16.72 km length was sanctioned at an anticipated cost of Rs. 2619.02 crores in 2010-11 . The project was conceived by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2010 when she was the Railway Minister.