Metro network: New policy to aid expansion

The Centre on Wednesday cleared a new metro rail policy for expanding the metro network in various cities in the country. It will focus on standardising norms and developing a procurement mechanism for implementation of the projects. It will also talk about funding and financing, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said.

The policy also seeks to enable realisation of growing metro rail aspirations

Private investment and other forms of financing for metro projects have been made mandatory to meet the huge resource demand

of a large number of cities, but in a responsible manner, he added.

Speaking to reporters after a Union Cabinet meeting , where the policy was approved, Mr Jaitley said, “The policy opens a big window for private investments across a range of metro operations making public private partnership (PPP) component mandatory for availing central assistance for new metro projects.”

He said private investment and other innovative forms of financing of metro projects have been made mandatory to meet the huge resource demand for capital-intensive high capacity metro projects.

At present, projects with a total length of 350-km are operational in eight cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai.