A year of chaos and complications has meant that Delhi Metro could complete only about 13 per cent of its civil construction work. The agency has four more years to complete the remaining of the 140km project. Delhi Metro chief Mangu Singh, however, sounded confident. “The progress of the project is satisfactory. I can assure you we will be able to meet the 2016 deadline.” On Wednesday, he met Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to apprise her about the progress of the project.

But what remains to be seen is how grounded this confidence is considering the tight deadline for a project of this magnitude. Its former chief E Sreedharan had expressed doubts about the timely completion of this project in an interview to HT nearly two months ago. “For a project like this, at least one more year will be required,” he had said.

And some of the problems that have led to a delay include the slow pace of land acquisition. Also, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is yet to get the go-ahead from the National Monuments Authority for the construction on Central Secretariat-Kashmere Gate corridor. The permission to chop 12,000 trees is also  awaited.

“We are capable enough to operate under tight deadlines. We are optimistic about completing phase 3 works in time despite all odds. The successful completion of construction by 2016 will be another milestone,” said a DMRC spokesperson.

Delhi Metro officials said that work is in progress on almost all corridors except Dwarka-Bahadurgarh corridor where preliminary work regarding the finalisation of alignment and preparation of tender documents is still on.