BMRCL, Railways delay bridge over funds
By S Lalitha | Express News Service | Published: 08th November 2017 02:58 AM |
Last Updated: 08th November 2017 09:56 AM | A+A A- |
Construction of the foot over bridge between Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna railway station and KSR Metro station has come to a standstill | Vinod Kumar T
BENGALURU: Work on the proposed Foot Over Bridge (FOB) between Platform number 10 of Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru City) Railway station and the KSR Metro station via M G Railway Colony Road came to a halt three months ago. The reason — BMRCL is yet to release `90 lakh sought by Bangalore Railway Division to complete the work.
The bridge is meant to ensure that both Metro and Rail passengers can easily commute between the two transportation modes. This FOB will be connected with the railway bridge in KSR station which connects all platforms from Platform 10.
As per the agreement entered between the two agencies, Railways will do the construction work while BMRCL will fund it. The FOB has missed two deadlines given by top railway officials — March and July.
According to Senior Divisional Engineer, Co-ordination, Bengaluru Railway Division, R K Singh, the FOB was initially estimated to cost `93.48 lakh in 2013 when the proposal was made. “The cost was revised to `188 lakh, with a maintenance cost of 30 per cent that Railways will incur along with other charges,” he told Express.
Express has a copy of the letter written by a top BMRCL official to Railways last month requesting to waive off the maintenance charges as it was not listed in the initial estimate. The letter states that Railways needs to bear the maintenance charges. However, Railways insists that BMRCL bear the full cost. Asked about the reasons for the FOB showing no signs of completion, Divisional Railway Manager R S S Saxena said, “Work relating to the covering shelter and landing facilities for the bridge have not been completed due to paucity of funds. The moment they release it, we can restart the work.”
The DRM also said that in a meeting held with BMRCL officials on November 5, “The Metro MD promised to release funds within a week’s time.”Singh said the contractor carrying out the work for Railways is yet to be paid his dues of `30 lakh. “If BMRCL releases `99.29 lakh, the FOB will be ready for use by February 2018.
