March 19: The state government will ask the district authorities in Howrah and North 24-Parganas to find out how much private and government land needs to be acquired for two Metro projects.
The state has engaged consulting agency RITES to prepare a detailed project report on two proposed extensions of East-West Metro - Salt Lake Central Park to Haldiram (VIP Road) and Howrah Maidan to Santragachhi.
At a meeting with the state government on Friday, where RITES made a presentation on the proposed extensions, railway officials wanted to know how much private land had to be acquired.
"We will make a complete assessment of the private and government land falling on the proposed routes. The district authorities will be doing the assessment," a senior government official said.
As many as five Metro projects had been stuck for long - and are running behind schedule by several years - because of land logjam resulting from the government's unwillingness to shift settlers.
Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro had withdrawn from a stretch of the airport-Barasat project because of unavailability of land. Other companies had sought compensation from the railways for delay.
The state government had recently changed its stand on land and taken an initiative to relocate settlers, leading to resumption of Metro work.
As for the proposed extension of East-West Metro, a railway official said: "We are wary of getting into any land-related problem. So, our main concern is whether we have to acquire private land."
A state official, too, said they would like to avoid situations where private land needed to be acquired.
The Howrah Maidan-Santragachhi route will span 10km, around 3km of which will be underground. The Central Park-Haldiram stretch will be around 5km.
The railways have also asked for a study on the number of buildings with deep pile bases on the Howrah Maidan-Santragachhi stretch. "This is a congested zone. We need to do the study," an official said.
A government official said a shopping mall had recently developed a crack during Metro work in New Town.
"We have written to the railways asking them to be careful while laying tracks near buildings," said an official.