Metro: BMRCL blames Railway Minister for delay

BANGALORE:  Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has again blamed the Ministry of Railways for stalling metro construction work by delaying the clearance of 6 metro constructions on railway land.Delivering the key note address at a Conference on Project Management on Wednesday titled ‘Harnessing the Power of Project Management’, N Sivasailam,  Managing Director of BMRCL, said that impending clearances are delaying the completion of the project.“While Reach 1 of Namma Metro is up and running, we have not yet received the official clearance for the construction of the skywalk at Baiyyappanahalli. How can we hope to complete the project?”he asked.Recently at a meeting in FKCCI, Sivasailam had said that the Ministry of Railways had in fact sanctioned the 66 metre span at the Malleswaram Railway crossing. But on Wednesday, he said that the metro corporation has not received any official clearance. In fact, he added that all 6 clearances are still pending. He added that the underground construction work has also been affected because of  impending clearance from the Railways.Not stopping workThe Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway, Bangalore had earlier replied to BMRCL’s allegations by saying that the Railways has not stopped any metro construction for lack of an official clearance. In a letter, the DRM said that out of the 6 cases, BMRCL had in fact submitted faulty designs.Single Window ClearanceBut at the conference on Wednesday, the opinion seemed to be a demand for a ‘single window clearance’, for all mega projects. “Getting clearances for projects is in fact difficult. I am willing to take up the matter before the Ministry of Railways on behalf of BMRCL,” said Pankaj Jain, Additional Secretary, Ministry of  Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. Sivasailam also said that in mega infrastructure projects there are land, litigation, environmental issues which have to be addressed simultaneously. He contrasted this experience with other countries where such issues are tackled sequentially.