BMRCL MD non-committal on Metro start date

BANGALORE: He may have missed more than one deadline in giving the city the much awaited Metro train, but Managing Director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) N Sivasailam remains defiant that he is “not the one to be blamed.” “It will come when it will come,” he said to make up for the many months of delay and the yet to be implemented project. Speaking to media persons after officially accepting the keys of the first “Made in India” Metro coaches from Bharath Earth Movers Limited (BEML) Chairman V R S Natarajan, Sivasailam said, “Everything is ready and we are just waiting for the regulators’ (Centre and the clearance authorities) nod for commercial operations.” “The Metro is all ready and will be on track as soon as we get the clearances,” he said.All safety and other clearances trials are complete, he stated. However, the Metro chief failed to answer why the trials were not completed before the deadlines, though theywere mandatory for commercial operations. Even though the deadline for Reach 1 had not been met, Sivasailam took the opportunity to announce that Reach 3 would be completed by the end of 2012.He said that the Reach 1 between Byappanahalli and M G Road is complete and it will be functional but did not cite any reason why the authorities are holding back their nod.Earlier, Delhi Metro Chief Sreedharan had stated that it will cost an additional `50 lakh per day if the Metro was delayed. “We have completed the mandatory 2,500 kms of track testing for all the trains on Reach 1,” he shared and added that after this, the RDSO’s final report will be given to the Union government and the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS).Natarajan shared that the Metro will be a three-car train and the coaches would be in standard gauge of 1435mm and 65.2 meters in length and will be powered by 750 volt. He said that their order will comprise 50 trains and 150 train sets (cars) to BMRCL and cost a total of `1,627 crore for the entire metro deal. The BEML’s ambition is in the race for the Jaipur Metro project.