RailEnquiry

The Mamata Banerjee government on Thursday set a schedule for the relocation of settlers from the East-West Metro route in Salt Lake’s Duttabad at a meeting called by urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
At the meeting, Hakim told officials of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC), the implementing agency for the project connecting Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah Maidan, that a survey to ascertain the number of encroachers would start on August 23.
KMRC officials said the presence of the minister, who has emerged as Mamata’s pointman on several key issues, such as the roll-out of the Reliance’s 4G service in the city, suggested a change of stand of the state government, which had earlier refused to help sort out the tangle.
“We have assured KMRC officials that there will be no more hindrance to completing the Duttabad stretch. The state government will extend all cooperation in shifting the encroachers,” Hakim said after the meeting.
The urban development department also allotted two plots with a total area of more than an acre to rehabilitate the encroachers.
The Rs 4,875-crore project is hit by land problem at various points on the 14.7km stretch, including Duttabad.
Gammon India has pulled out of the Duttabad stretch after waiting four years for the government to remove encroachments from a 365-metre stretch where 13 piers were to be built to support the elevated tracks. The company has demanded Rs 19 crore in compensation for losses suffered because of the government’s failure to relocate the families, who have refused to move out.
In March, a survey to identify the Duttabad families to be relocated had to be abandoned after Trinamul supporters, led by an MLA, drove away KMRC and government officials.
Sources, however, said things started looking up after Hakim took the initiative to remove the hurdles following orders from the chief minister.
The KMRC will initially build temporary structures for the encroachers on one of the two plots the urban development department had allotted. Later, permanent houses will be built forthe families on the second plot.
“The state government’s approach looks positive and we hope to complete the construction of the Duttabad stretch within two years. The first phase from Salt Lake to Sealdah should be complete by the end of 2015,” said Hemant Kumar Sharma, the managing director of the KMRC.
He said a tender was floated on Wednesday for the construction of temporary houses for the encroachers.
“We had earlier floated a tender but had to cancel it because there was little chance of the encroachers being shifted,” said Sharma.
The KMRC also extended the tenure of the tender to hire a contractor for laying the tracks at Duttabad. The tender had to be floated after Gammon had withdrawn from the project. Gammon’s departure seemed to have scared off prospective contractors. In June there was only one bidder for the tender, forcing the KMRC to extend it till July.
“Now we have one more bidder and has extended it till August. Wehope that more bidders will express interest for the project,” said Sharma.
The KMRC has prepared an alternative alignment with an increased span that will affect fewer settlers, sources said. The altered blueprint has seven piers instead of the originally planned 13, increasing the distance between every pair from 25 to 90 metres.
However, the KMRC’s problems in the second phase between Sealdah and Howrah Maidan continue. The state government is yet to act on a Calcutta High Court order to remove 90 families from Bowbazar where the Central station will come up.
Litigation and red tape have forced Afcons, the infrastructure arm of Shapoorji Pallonji, to seek Rs 257 crore in compensation for not being able to start work on the Central station-Howrah Maidan stretch in three years.