Raw material shortage stalls Kochi metro works

A quarry strike in Ernakulam district has hit the works on the Kochi metro rail.

Shortage of raw material, which was in effect from the last week, coupled with concerns of labour shortage, has held up the works.

It is learnt the contractors engaged have stopped work and the workmen from other states had returned home due to the ongoing deadlock.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) authorities said the situation would have an adverse impact on the completion of the project. All the concrete transit mixer vehicles were lying idle at the casting yard at HMT at Kalamassery, DMRC said.

In a statement, DMRC announced its inability in maintaining the deadline for the completion of the project. It must be noted Phase-I of the project is scheduled to be completed by June 2016.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy today said the quarry strike would be resolved soon and the metro work would re-start from Monday. The chief minister said a case was pending in the high court regarding the granite quarry issue, and added the government was speeding up the process to settle the matter.

Meanwhile, Ernakulam district collector M Rajamanikyam told reporters the issue was a clear deliberate attempt to slowdown the Kochi metro works, and added the district administration would take serious action against offenders.

He said while the quarry strike had been withdrawn in the state's other districts, it was still continuing in Ernakulam.

Meanwhile, the contractor for the first two 'reaches' of the project, L&T, has been forced to stop work completely due to raw material shortage.

The metro rail project requires an average 400 metric tonnes of granite every day. Though the contractors tried to bring in granite from the quarries in the other districts, they were facing stiff opposition from the striking quarry owners.

L&T has gone short of stone chips and M sand, following which, the work at the Aluva-Kaloor stretch has come to a halt.

Raw material stocks of another contractor, Soma, however, is capable of meeting 25 per cent of the total requirement.

"If the government does not intervene in the issue and fails to take necessary steps, the deadline for the Kochi metro rail project would get affected," said DMRC sources.

The strike was called by the All-Kerala Granite Quarry and Crusher Units Coordination Committee in protest against new rules for the renewal of mining licences in the state.

The issue is likely to rage further as the workers of tippers have started a strike from today in support of the quarry owners.

Though the chief minister had said work would re-start from March 2, an L&T supervisor however said it would take at least two days for normalcy to return. DMRC in a statement said the company had planned to complete a major section of the metro's work before the monsoon sets in. It had asked the contractors to deploy 800 additional workers for achieving this.