Railway minister Nitish Kumar will be presenting his mini rail budget on Friday, amid a financial roadblock for Eastern Railway’s Chitpur passenger terminal. The cost of the project, planned to ease the load on Howrah and Sealdah stations, has shot up after detailed planning.
The new figure has been sent to the Railway Board for a nod. However, the infrastructure is poised to receive a boost, as the state government is planning major reconstruction and repair of the approach roads with Japanese financial assistance.
The initial estimate, Rs 78 crore, was okayed in the 2003-04 rail budget. The cost has escalated to nearly Rs 100 crore. A rail official told Metro on Thursday: “The cost was based on certain estimates, which have shot up because of a large amount of relocation work. Also, costs of new platforms and washing lines have been included in the revised plan.”
He added that conceptual plans and drawings of the project had been finalised and approved by all the departments concerned and tenders had been opened for construction of platforms, deep pits and tracks.
With the traffic dispersal capacity at Howrah and Sealdah stations reaching near-saturation point, the new terminal at Chitpur was planned to facilitate the dispersal of passengers in the city. Officials said the functional goods yard at Chitpur would be broken into three sub-yards — Ultadanga, Lower Yard and Cossipore. They will be reorganised and certain relocations made of the unloading lines so that the incoming goods traffic is not affected. The terminal, between Ultadanga Road and Tallah stations of the Circular Railway, was chosen for its location.
In the original plan, work was to have been completed in two phases. The first phase, scheduled to be completed this December, would have eight pairs of trains originating and terminating from Chitpur and 14 in the next phase, to be ready by December 2005. Officials claimed that “three per cent of the project is ready”, but added that the target date of completion, December 31, 2005, “was subject to the availability of funds”.
However, the state government is finalising a scheme to reconstruct, widen and repair the approach roads to the Chitpur terminal. The work, funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, will be taken up by the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC). The roads to be laid are New Cut Canal (North) and (South) roads, Canal East Road and Canal West Road. “We will work on the southern part, while HRBC will be in charge of the northern end,” said Alapan Bandyopadhyay, CMDA chief executive officer.
State transport minister Subhas Chakraborty said the scheme is part of a Rs 70-crore project, which will include construction of underpasses at Patipukur, Science City and other spots.
