But officials of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) are not the one to give up. They are confident that the December commissioning of the stretch is still possible.
With more than a week into December already, more than 18 per cent of the track-laying work is still pending. The signalling and electrical work is also not complete on the stretch.
“We still have about 51 spans of track laying work to be completed on the stretch and one span measures roughly about 31 metres,” a representative of ITD CEM, the track laying contractors, told Deccan Herald.
Exude confidence
With approximately 1.6 km of track yet to be laid and only 72 per cent of the civil works being completed on an average at the stations, it is doubtful whether Reach-1 can indeed be commissioned by December-end. However, BMRCL officials exude confidence that they would commission the Metro operations before the deadline. But experts believe otherwise.
For the records, the official date for the trial run was December 10. But that deadline has now been deferred to some time in mid-December. BMRCL, in an official release dated December 8, said, “The train will soon be brought on the main line for running tests for a certain period of time, in about a week to ten days,” adding that full fledged oscillation trials would follow thereafter.
Decision on fare likely after Dec 15
BMRCL is yet to take a decision on one of the key aspects –– fares.
BMRCL had said in September that it would finalise fares for the Reach-1, almost two months ahead of the scheduled run of the Metro train.
“Fares of the Metro train will be decided by next month and the trial run should be completed by December third week,” BMRCL Managing Director Sivasailam had said in September.
However, even to this date, it has failed to decide on the fares. Speaking to Deccan Herald, BMRCL Chief Public Relations Officer B L Y Chavan said, “The sub-committee has already met once and the next meeting is scheduled some time next week. The decision has to be taken by the committee.”
He said that the panel is expected to come to a consensus on the fares in the next meeting. However, going by the various delays that have plagued the project, it will not be surprising if the decision on fares is delayed further.