Nagpur: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and union transport minister Nitin Gadkari may be claiming that the Nagpur Metro Rail project will be completed by December 2018 but the reality is that it will not be fully ready before first quarter of 2020. Even this is only if there are no unforeseen delays. The project will be at least delayed by a year.
Mahesh Kumar, Mahametro’s director (project), said, in spite of the delay there would be no cost escalations. “The cost will increase by 2% at the most due to the delay but we have reduced the cost by 8% as compared to detailed project report (DPR) estimate. So, the extra expenditure will be easily offset. Moreover, we do not have cost escalation clauses in three of the four viaduct construction contracts,” he said.
It is not that Metro will not become operational before 2020. The trial run of Mihan depot to Airport stretch is expected in second half of this year. Metro will start plying between Mihan and Sitabuldi in first half of 2018. The other stretches will become operational one by one after an interval of about six months.
