KOLKATA: Armed with clearances from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Metro Railway has invited bids for the Yellow line’s 6.8km extension from Airport to Birati. The Rs 1,330cr contract includes construction of Birati and Michael Nagar stations.
On July 5 in a news titled“Airport raises the bar, Barasat metro vaults past height hurdle”, TOI had reported that the metro line, which has missed several deadlines, is gradually overcoming hurdles, with the AAI resolving height restrictions of cranes needed for construction and allowing metro work outside the airport. The Yellow line will start at Noapara and end at Barasat via the airport.
Last week, Metro Railway invited bids for the civil construction of the Yellow line (or Kolkata’s Line 4) 6.8km underground extension from Biman Bandar (airport) to Birati. The initiative comes weeks after the AAI allowed use of 18m tall cranes for building the Airport-New Barrackpore stretch of the 11.2km Noapara-Barasat or the Yellow Line. AAI also gave Metro Railway the much-awaited NOC to start work between the airport and Michael Nagar premises. Negotiations are on to resolve the impasse over the New Barrackpore station which falls on the flight path of planes near the northern end of the main runway.“The 1,330cr contract is part of the Yellow line’s 11.2km extension to Barasat in the north-eastern suburbs of Kolkata. Its scope includes construction of a 3.6km metro tunnel, one underground metro station building at Birati and subway work for Birati and Michael Nagar stations,” a metro official said. Whoever wins the tender will have to complete the work in two-and-a-half years, he said.
The metro tunnel along the city airport’s boundary wall will be built by RCC (reinforced cement concrete) box pushing method. No tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be deployed. The Birati station will be constructed in cut-and-cover method.
“As a budgetary allocation of only Rs 200crore has been made for the Yellow line for the current fiscal, we hope that the rest of the issues will be resolved one after the other and funds will flow accordingly. The NOC for construction using 18m tall cranes in and around the airport’s vicinity is a significant beginning for a project which seemed to have hit a dead end last year,” a metro official said.
The contractor will design, procure and construct the tunnel and the two underground stations, including architectural finishing, firefighting, water supply, sanitary installation, power supply system, aluminium third rail and so on.
