BANGALORE: In delays and cost revision, Namma Metro- whose deadline was revised four times - has many cousins among its national counterparts.The Kolkata Metro is a case in point. A master plan envisaging construction of five rapid-transit lines, over a route length of 97.5 km, was prepared in 1971. In December 1972, then prime minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated work on the 16.45 km Dum Dum-Tollygunge line. Construction started in 1973-74, but a fusillade of problems halted work till 1978. Partial service was commissioned after six years - over 3.4 km. The line became fully operational only by 1995. It is said that cost of the project shot up by almost twelve times.In stark contrast is the execution of the Delhi Metro. Keeping in mind the Kolkata Metro fiasco, the Governments of India and Delhi jointly set up the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in 1995 with E Sreedharan as its managing director. Construction started in October 1998 and was completed in 2006, three years ahead of schedule. The project had its share of glitches, though, most notably an accident that claimed six lives. Unfortunately, the Delhi Metro is a lone exception. The Kochi Metro was proposed first in 2005, and has ever since run into a maelstrom of delays over its feasibility. Work on its Mumbai counterpart suffered a 19-month delay; the Satyam scandal threw a spanner in the works of the Hyderabad Metro rail.
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