Bihar Govt Approves Rs16,960-crore metro rail project for Patna Tuesday February 09,2016

 

The Bihar Government on Tuesday February 09,2016  approved a Rs.16,960 crore metro rail project for capital Patna, joining a list of states looking to fix commuting woes with rapid mass transit solutions.

The metro will initially run from Saguna More to Patna Junction, covering 27 stations in the first phase.

Planned as a public-private partnership, (PPP) the project will have three phases

In the first phase, an east-west corridor (1A) would connect Danapur cantonment to Bypass Chowk or Mithapur via Patna Junction, covering a distance of 14.5km. It would touch Raj Bhavan and the secretariat. This corridor would branch out from Patna High Court or Vikas Bhavan to Digha Ghat (1B), covering 5.5km more, and touching IIT in Patliputra.

The second corridor to be developed in the first phase would connect Patna Junction with ISBT. Covering 16km, this route would take residents to Gandhi Maidan, Patna Medical College and Hospital, Patna University, Rajendra Nagar railway station, Gandhi Setu, Kumhrar and Zero Mile.

A third corridor would be developed in the second phase. It would cover 13km and connect Mithapur to Didarganj through Transport Nagar and upscale residential locality Kankerbagh. The fourth corridor would also start at Mithapur, but it would travel west, covering 11km and terminating at AIIMS.

The routes of the Patna Metro would be underground, on ground and elevated at different places.


In the first phase, it will complete North-South and East-West corridors

The project was conceived in 2011 and the state government had asked the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) to prepare a feasibility report

The Bihar Government will now send the report to the urban development ministry for Union Cabinet’s approval

Since May 2014 when the Narendra Modi led NDA Government took over at the Centre, the Union cabinet has approved three metro rail projects—

• Nagpur Metro Rail Project with a length of 38.21 km along two corridors at a cost of Rs.8,680 crore; 
• Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-1 covering 35.96 km at a cost of Rs.10,773 crore; and 
• Lucknow Metro Rail Project over 22.878 km with 22 stations at a cost of Rs.6,928 crore

Among other metro rail projects awaiting clearance from the Cabinet are a

• metro network for the tri-city of Chandigarh, 
• metro network for the tri-city of Mohali 
• metro network for the tri-city of Panchkula, 
• Ludhiana Metro Rail project and 
• Dehradun-Rishikesh-Haridwar Metro Rail project. 

Metro rail is currently coming up in several cities including

• Hyderabad (Telangana)
• Kochi (Kerala)
• Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh)
• Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar (Gujarat) and 
• Nagpur (Maharashtra)

As per the 2006 National Urban Transport Policy, the central government funds up to 20% of the cost of metro rail projects either through equity and subordinate debt (for 50% central taxes/duties) if the project is taken up through a 50:50 jointly owned special purpose vehicle of the Government of India and the state government, or through viability gap funding if the project is taken up under the PPP mode.

The central government also provides up to 50% funding for preparation of the detailed project report (DPR) of Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) projects.