Circle Line To Exceed Original Budget Of $6.8b

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 14 September 2007

The Circle Line MRT project will exceed its projected $6.8 billion budget.

But this increase is unlikely to be more than 10 percent of the original cost, according to the Land Transport Authority's estimate.

The costlier project is due to the disruption in the supply of sand and granite faced by the construction industry recently.

Aside from costs, LTA says the Circle Line project is on schedule.

At the Farrer Road and the Botanic Gardens MRT construction sites, work is well underway to beef up the stations' structural frame.

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Circle Line to exceed original budget of $6.8b

There are 10 stations in the permanent works stage which involves laying the foundation and putting up critical support structures.

At the Botanic Gardens station, 192,000 cubic metres of earth have been excavated. It will use some 54,000 cubic metres of concrete. This process takes roughly 18 months.

But other stations are even nearer to completion, with just the finishing touches to go.

In fact by the end of the year, LTA will hand over the first four completed stations to operator SMRT. These include the Dhoby Ghaut, Bras Basah, Esplanade and Promenade stations.

SMRT will oversee caretaking duties leading up to the Circle Line's operational date of 2010.

Lim Bok Ngam, LTA's deputy chief executive for infrastructure and development, said: "Overall, the Circle Line is about 65 percent completed. For individual elements, tunnelling works, we are about 70 percent completed. On the station side, I think 10 of the 29 stations are already into the architectural and fitting up work phase."

LTA had to grapple with cost issues arising from the recent disruption in sand and granite supplies.

The agency will compensate its contractors 75 percent of the increase in sand and granite costs. The increase in costs has affected phases 4 and 5 of the project.

LTA's Mr Lim said: "The few stations and the Circle Line 2, for example Nicoll Highway, Dakota, Mountbatten, they're also affected. But contractors are working closely with us, there's no big concern about supply."

LTA says it will not know the final increased cost of the project until it is completed. For now, it says, it will be able to manage the situation. - CNA/ir