Metro Project Soar Rs.6000 Crore More – CMRL Seeks Additional Funds!
City’s Metro Rail project work, may shoot up from the present estimation of Rs 14,600 Crores to about Rs.20, 000 Crore because of several aspects including Rupee declination and sky-high prices across construction and labor charges.
Hence Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), who is taking care of this project, now seeks supplementary funds to conclude this project.
Till now CMRL has spend nearly Rs. 8000 Crores for this project on the total estimation of Rs.14, 600 Crores. But now it needs Rs. 6000 Crores more to furnish the 45 km-stretch work by end of 2016, officials said.
The rupee downgrading against the dollar rate, mainly based the reason for 40% cost overrun of the fund expenditure. For instance, initially CMRL planned to pay out only Rs.800 Crore for land purchase, but it had ended up at the cost of Rs. 2,500 Crores, official says.
Out of the phase1 project total cost estimation of Rs.14, 600 Crores, 59% of the cost will be put in by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 20% will be supplied by the Central Government and the rest will be given by the State Government.
The cost rise will bounce to crop up, as the soil states were pretty demanding and rupee downgrading was quite keen, said S. Santhanam, the former prime urban planner of Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA).
