Union Budget 2019: Reduced outlay for E-W, Noapara-Barasat a gainer

KOLKATA: Friday’s Interim Budget held no major surprises for the five ongoing Metro projects in Kolkata with allocations depending largely on the money spent over the last year. Railway minister Piyush Goyal assured officials of the Metro Railway and Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation (KMRC) that more funds depending on the speed of progress. Funds will not be a problem for any of the projects, Goyal said.

The E-W Metro Corridor that is being implemented by KMRC received Rs 905 crore in the Budget. The outlay for 2018-19 was Rs 1,100 crore with a ‘carrot’ of Rs 549.45 crore if the project progressed fast. However, the revised outlay dropped to Rs 950 crore, hence the reduced outlay for 2019-20.

“We may be requiring slightly more than Rs 905 crore but the minister has assured us that funds are available and we just have to revise the outlay to receive more funds. Phase-I of the project is nearly ready and the expenditure in that stretch will no longer be very high. Whatever we need now will be for the stretch between Esplanade and Sealdah where tunnel boring has already started. Funds will be required as and when infrastructure is created at the underground stations,” a senior KMRC official said.

The Joka-BBD Bag link that is facing severe problems in acquiring land received an allocation of only Rs 100 crore. There is reason for this. The allocation in the 2018-19 Budget was Rs 169.36 crore but midway through the year, officials associated with the project revised the outlay to Rs 100 crore. Taking this as an indication, the outlay for 2019-20 was also fixed at Rs 100 crore. The Noapara-Barasat via airport stretch was a gainer this year. The reason is that work is progressing at an admirable pace for the station at the airport. While the outlay for this project in 2018 was Rs 212.50 crore, it received an allocation of Rs 225 crore for 2019-20. This, despite a revised outlay of Rs 187.50 crore.

The Noapara-Dakshineswar link that is nearing completion was allotted Rs 65 crore. The previous year’s allocation was Rs 42.50 crore. Officials aren’t complaining, though, as much of the capital expenditure for the project has been made. The New Garia-Airport (via Rajarhat) link also received Rs 345 crore for 2019-20. In 2018, the outlay for this project was Rs 344 crore and a revision was made seeking Rs 355 crore. This project is also progressing at a fast pace and has been able to spend nearly 30% of its total cost of Rs 4,259.50 crore till March 2018.

The Railways has also allocated nearly Rs 6.37 crore for the Integrated Security System at 23 stations in the Metro Railway network. This will help in procuring modern CCTV cameras and baggage scanners. Allocations have also been made for new escalators at the stations to replace the old ones.