Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday said the central government will bear the entire escalated cost of the East West metro rail project, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by 2018.
 
 Prabhu made the announcement of bearing after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here.
 
 "We have decided to remove all hurdles in East West Metro project. The escalation cost of the projects is Rs.765 crore. We will bear that," he said.
 
 The original project cost of the 14.67-km corridor connecting Kolkata's satellite township Salt lake with Howrah, when sanctioned in 2008, was Rs.4,875.85 crore. But owing to hurdles, mainly due to land acquisition issues and realignment of the route, the cost went up.
 
 The first phase of the project from Salt Lake to Sealdah is expected to be completed in 2018.