Baranagar-Barrackpore metro, stuck for 16 yrs, sees light at end of tunnel

Kolkata: A proposed metro line between Baranagar and Barrackpore stuck for nearly 16 years got a fresh push on Monday after Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), the implementing agency for the corridor, met civic officials at Kolkata Municipal Corporation headquarters to iron out the issues plaguing the project.The 12.5-km Pink Line was sanctioned in 2010 when Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister and a detailed project report (DPR) was prepared for it in 2011 but got stuck after KMC refused to shift underground water pipelines that lie along the central verge of BT Road.Sources said the the underground utilities were not considered when the project was initially planned and a DPR hurriedly drawn up by RITES. In 2011, a KMC study of underground utilities found two big pipelines 60 inch and 42 inch in diameter. In an MoU signed between the railways and KMC, the civic body agreed to dismantle the two pipelines and replaced them with a new pipelin of 64-inch diameter. In Oct 2012, the new pipeline was installed but the old ones were not dismantled. By then, Trinamool Congress had quit the UPA II govt."When PM Modi assumed office in 2014, KMC said it would not be possible to shift the pipelines and the Rs 2,069-crore project was put on the back burner. All these years, it has been kept alive in the Union budgetary documents with a minimum allotment of Rs 10 crore," an official said.With the change of govt a fortnight ago, the Railway Board decided to give the project a fresh push. Following this, a meeting was held at KMC on Monday to end the deadlock and find solutions on how to shift the water pipelines that connect Palta water treatment plant and Tallah water reservoir."The moot point of the discussion was the five separate water transmission lines. Two of them must be shifted to dig piles required to construct the piers for the elevated metro tracks," the official added.Metro Railway general manager Subhansu Sekhar Mishra said, "RVNL and KMC placed their respective options to seamlessly shift the utilities. The options will be reviewed so that a consensus can be achieved at the next meeting."KMC officials said the water transmission lines are the city's lifeline. The Palta water treatment plant generates 240 million gallons of water every day. This water is transmitted to the Tallah reservoir, from where potable water is supplied to the entire north, central and parts of south Kolkata. "The slightest disruption to the supply chain will affect hundreds of households. The metro project cannot come up unless the water transmission lines are shifted," an official said.Sporadic attempts to revive the project over the years failed to achieve a breakthrough. Even last July, KMC mayor Firhad Hakim chaired a meeting of senior KMC officials and Metro Railway to discuss the project, but the impasse persisted. "The Baranagar-Barrackpore corridor was considered to have been virtually shelved, until now," a state official said.Once the project gets underway, at least 200 big and small realty projects around BT Road will get a major boost, especially properties between Shyambazar and Barrackpore. "We have been waiting eagerly for the metro project to start. It's been almost 16 years. It takes at least an hour to reach central Kolkata from my house, that too after changing autos to get to the nearest metro station," said Manimoy Chatterjee, a BT Road resident.