Lucknow metro staff to work 16 hours a day to meet deadline

LUCKNOW: To meet the tight deadline of completing metro project on priority section from Transport Nagar to Charbagh Railway Station (about 8 km) by 2016 end, Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) is gearing to work for 16 hours a day. Even the contractor, L&T will be working for extra hours to achieve the completion within deadline.
The peer cap installation on pillars would start from April 12 which would block traffic for 10 minutes every day.LMRC is planning to carry construction (installation of peer caps) either in the wee hours of morning or after midnight to cause least hindrance to the traffic flow. Meanwhile, LMRC MD, Kumar Keshav and Housing principal secretary, Sadakant have been insisting the Ministry of Urban Development to forward Lucknow metro’s papers to the Ministry of Finance for PIB’s final approval.
The final nod would give green signal to the cost sharing model between Centre, State Government and the foreign finance agency. Lucknow metro’s total cost of North-South corridor including track construction and rolling stock is pegged at Rs 6778 crore. LMRC has to get about Rs 1300 crore from the Centre, Rs 3502 crore from foreign banks and the balance amount from state government. It requires about Rs 1000 crore this financial year, out of which state government has already sanctioned Rs 450 crore.
LMRC MD Kumar Keshav said, “Our discussions with the foreign financing agencies are already in advanced stage. The approval will open gates for availing large loan of about Rs 3502 crore from them.” Talks are already in advanced stages with international banks like European Investment Bank and French Development Agency to fund the project.
Meanwhile, the date of receiving bids for rolling stock tender has been postponed by 2 weeks to almost April end. The appointed firm has to provide trains within 65 weeks from the date of order. LMRC said since the deadline is postponed, they would have to cut down their evaluation time to meet the government’s deadline of project completion.