BENGALURU: Two projects to be implemented by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) are not moving as officials feel the overall Maintenance Charges running into crores levied by the Bangalore Railway Division are too high. The projects in question are the Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Hebbal flyover and a Road Under Bridge (RUB) at Challaghatta. However, Railways state that it is just going by the rule book which is applicable across the country.
The charges needs to be paid as deposit to the Railways by the BDA before it can go ahead with the work.
TNIE has copies of the letters issued by the Railways in this connection. The letter by the Senior Divisional Engineer, West, Bengaluru Division, in connection with the Challaghatta RUB says a sum of Rs 13,93,08,490 needs to be deposited by BDA. The Codal Charges to be paid to the Railways comprises of Supervision charges of 2,40, 18,705 which is 6.25% of the project cost and Maintenance charges of 11,52,89,785 which is 30% of project cost.
A senior BDA official told TNIE, "These charges are levied in advance for the project. We are okay with the supervisory charges but a charge of 11.5 crore towards maintenance is just too much. Our estimated cost for the project (passing through railway portion) itself is Rs 38.43 crore. When you take that into consideration, this maintenance is just too much."
He added, "BDA will be holding talks with the Railways to waive away the maintenance fee as the Authority can itself take care of the maintenance. Otherwise, we should be permitted to pay the fee on an annual basis rather than at one go as has been mandated."
The Challaghatta RUB involves the construction of twin Reinforced Cement Concrete boxes by box pushing method between Kengeri and Hejjala stations on the Bengaluru-Mysuru railway route.
The other letter from Senior Divisional Finance Manager, Bangalore Division to the BDA refers to an ROB between Hebbal and Banaswadi stations. The total cost of the project on the Railway portion works out to Rs 14,18,15.835. "The Maintenance charge here is Rs 3.6 crore (Rs 3,60,548,73) while the Supervisory charge comes to Rs 75 lakh (Rs 7511431). The maintenance is steep," another official explained.
Divisional Railway Manager Yogesh Mohan told TNIE, "These charges are made in line with what has been laid down by the Railway Board."