The Centre has asked Chennai Metro, which has given an estimate of ₹69,180 crore for the phase II project, to explain the reason behind this huge spend, according to sources.
The Ministry of Urban Development asked them to itemise every aspect — from land acquisition to construction — recently to find out how much spending was required for each segment and to see if it could be cut down, sources said. “They wrote to us sometime back and we responded immediately and very elaborately, giving out reasons and detailed calculations on everything we will spend for this project; we have informed them that our estimates are right,” an official said.
A highly placed source said these were routine exchanges which happened when a project of this scale was taken up. “They are bound to ask such questions. There is nothing wrong,” he added.
The project sprawls over 118.9 km of the city, touching 128 stations, with an estimated projection of ₹69,180 crore.
Of the total cost, the cost for construction (without escalation) alone will take about ₹43,000 crore and the cost for acquiring land and taxes will take nearly ₹13,700 crore.
For a huge chunk of the cost, the Chennai Metro has already got a loan sanction from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) for ₹20,196 crore, for 52 km from Madhavaram to CMBT and Madhavaram to Shollinganallur.
Talks with banks
For another ₹10,300 crore, the Chennai Metro has been in talks with various banks including the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank and the World Bank.
“The representatives came down for another round of discussions a few weeks ago and we hope to get official sanction of loan from these banks at the earliest,” another CMRL official added.
