India Awards Contract for Underground Sections of Metro Line

4 March 2010 (Last Updated March 4th, 2010 18:30)

The first contract for the Indian Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation's East-West corridor has been awarded to the domestic subsidiary of Italian-Thai Development in a Rs4676.40 crore ($1bn) deal. Under the contract ITD Cementation will construct the first underground section starting from S

The first contract for the Indian Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation's East-West corridor has been awarded to the domestic subsidiary of Italian-Thai Development in a Rs4676.40 crore ($1bn) deal.

Under the contract ITD Cementation will construct the first underground section starting from Subhas Sarobar to Central Metro station at a cost of around Rs909 crore ($198m).

Despite several delays the entire project, including the underground section, is expected to enter service by December 2014.

The East-West metro corridor, which includes 5.70km-long elevated section and a 8km-long underground segment, will connect Kolkata's IT hub Salt Lake Sector V to Howrah.

The contracts for the construction of the viaducts and elevated stations have already been given to Gammon India and Simplex, respectively.

KMRC is a joint venture between the West Bengal government and the Union urban development ministry.