Navi Mumbai Metro to miss 2017 deadline

NAVI MUMBAI: The wait for Navi Mumbai Metro has got longer. Cidco officials say it’s impossible to meet the July 2017 deadline due to multiple issues. As a result, the Metro service that was initially supposed to open in 2014, will now be ready only by March 2018, officials said.
Problems in shifting high tension lines and railway and highway crossings are delaying the 11-km Metro network from Pendhar to Belapur, the officials added.
The project has already got three extensions since work started in 2011. According to the officials, 94% of viaduct work has been completed, 75% of depot site work is over and 62% of station building is completed.
The officials, however, pointed out that only 30% of the work on track systems has been done so far. The remaining 70% system work has the largest budgetary allocation of Rs 1,328 crore.
Other pending works like viaduct (6%), stations (38%) and depot (25%), have a budget of Rs 850 crore .
“A high tension line near Bharati Vidyapeeth in Kharghar is posing a major obstacle in the viaduct work. We have to shift it in coordination with MSEDCL. The overhead work at crossing near Taloja railway station and Sion-Panvel highway at CBD will be taken up soon,” said Cidco managing director Bhushan Gagrani.
The first train will arrive at the depot in December 2016 for inspections and test runs for almost a year, said an official. “The services will start by March 2018,” Gagrani said adding that “station work has been moving at snail’s pace. The contractor delayed the work. It will be expedited now to meet the March 2018 deadline”.
Residents are certainly not happy over the delay. “It’s way behind the schedule and we have to endure back-breaking road journeys where the Metro project is under way, ” said Kiran Patil, an activist.