the burgeoning transport problem of kolkata drew the attention of the city planners

8/4/2019 The Burgeoning Transport Problem of Kolkata Drew the Attention of the City Planners

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The burgeoning transport problem of Kolkata drew the attention of the cityplanners, the State Government and also the Government of India. It was soonrealised that something had to be done and done fast to cope up with thesituation. It was Dr. B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, who for thefirst time conceived the idea in 1949 of building an Underground Railway forKolkata to solve the problems to some extent. A survey was done by a team of

French experts but nothing concrete came out. Efforts made to solve the problemby augmenting the existing fleet of public transport vehicles barely touched thefringe of the problem as the roads account for only 4.2% of the surface area inCalcutta as compared to 25% in Delhi and even 30% in other cities. With a view tofinding out an alternative solution to alleviate the suffering of the Kolkatans, theMetropolitan Transport Project (Rlys) was set up in 1969. After detailed studies,the MTP (Rlys) came to the conclusion that there was no other alternative but toconstruct a Mass Rapid Transit System. The MTP (Rlys) had prepared a MasterPlan in 1971 envisaging construction of five rapid transit lines for the city of Kolkata , totalling to a route length of 97.5km. Of these, the highest priority wasgiven to the busy North-South axis between Dum Dum and Tollygunge over alength of 16.45 km and the work on this project was sanctioned on 1.6.72. Thefoundation stone of the project was laid by Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime

Minister of India, on December 29, 1972 and the construction work started in1973-74.

Since the commencement of construction, the project had to contend with severalproblems such as non-availability of sufficient funds till 1977-78, shifting of underground utilities, court injunctions, irregular supply of vital materials andothers. But overcoming innumerable hurdles and crossing all barriers of disbelief,Calcutta Metro, India's first and Asia's fifth, became a reality on OCTOBER 24,1984 with the commissioning of partial commercial service covering a distance of 3.40 km with five stations between Esplanade and Bhowanipur. This was quicklyfollowed by commuter services on another 2.15 km stretch in the north betweenDum Dum and Belgachia on NOVERMBER 12, 1984. The commuter service wasextended upto Tollygunge on APRIL 29, 1986 covering a further distance of 4.24km making the service available over an overall distance of 9.79 km and covering11 stations. However, the services on the north section were suspended w.e.f.26.10.92 as this isolated small section was not attractive to commuters. After agap of over eight years, the 1.62 km Belgachia-Shyambazar section, along withDum Dum -Belgachia stretch, was opened on AUGUST 13,1994. Another 0.71 kmstretch from Esplanade to Chandni Chowk was commissioned shortly thereafter,on OCTOBER 2, 1994. The Shyambazar-Shovabazar-Girish Park (1.93 km) andChandni Chowk-Central (0.60 km) sections were opened on FEBRUARY 19, 1995.Services on the entire stretch of Metro were introduced from September 27, 1995by bridging the vital gap of 1.80 km in the middle. A dream thus came true.



Accounts

The Finance & Accounts Department of Metro Railway, Kolkata is headed by the FinancialAdviser and Chief Accounts Officer who is assisted by Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer (Construction) and 2 Deputy Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer,3 Senior Assistant Financial Advisers, 3 Assistant Accounts Officers and 1 Programmer in I.T

Centre as gazetted set-up. At present the total staff strength of the Accounts Departmentas on 31.03.2010, including Cash & Pay Office and the I.T. Centre, is 163 (non gazeted: 153,gazeted : 10) consisting of both the Operation & Maintenance wing and the Constructionwing. The Accounts Department is primarily responsible for:-

• Maintenance of the accounts of the Railway

• Internal check of transactions affecting receipts and expenditure

• Settlement of claims against the Railway

• Tendering advice to the administration in issues involving Railway finance

• Compilation of Accounts

• Compilation of budget and periodical review of expenditure

• Discharge other management accounting functions including periodic reporting toRailway Board

• Collection of revenues (other than ticket sales) and disbursement of payments

Organizational Structure

Operating Ratio

The Operating Ratio for 2008-09 ( The ratio of Total Working Expenses to Earnings) of Metro Railway, Kolkata was 253 against 195 in 2007-08 The operating ratio of MetroRailway is higher than the All India figure since the maintenance cost in an undergroundservice is much higher than over-ground Railway system. Metro Railway earnings mainlyrelates to passenger earnings and sundry earnings whereas in all Zonal Railways the bulkearnings comes from goods freight. This year operating ratio is in higher side in respect of

previous years due to the effects of 6th C.P.C,increase of contractual liabilities andstores(Stock & non stock ) items.



Expenditure ProfileExpenditure of the railway is broadly divided into two categories, viz. Ordinary WorkingExpenses which includes Repairs, Maintenance, Operating Expenses, staff cost, etc. andPlan-Head Expenditure. Capital and the Plan-Expenditure varies on the basis of thepriorities of the investments from year to year. The Components of Expenditure in OrdinaryWorking Expenses from 2001-02 upto Dec? 2006 (2006-07) shows constant control overthe expenses in all aspects which has been achieved due to all round fiscal discipline andfinancial efficiency.

the burgeoning transport problem of kolkata drew the attention of the city planners

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