Centre to provide 20% funding for ropeway project in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: Officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said on Thursday that the Centre will provide 20% of the ₹450 crore required for constructing the 5.1km-long urban ropeway project that will connect the two Metro stations of Mohan Nagar and Vaishali in Ghaziabad.

The ropeway project is being planned as an alternative to a Metro extension to connect Mohan Nagar on the Red line and Vaishali on the Blue line of the Delhi Metro Rail Network (DMRC). The proposal was suggested by General (retd) V K Singh, who is also the minister of state for road transport and highways and civil aviation, besides being an MP from Ghaziabad, earlier this year.

“Two days ago (Tuesday), we held meetings with General V K Singh and other officials in Delhi and an in-principle approval was given for the Centre’s share of 20% towards the project. Since the project will be taken up on public private partnership mode, the company developing the project will fund 60% of the project. The remaining share will be borne by the GDA,” said Krishna Karunesh, vice chairperson of GDA.

“Now, we need to put forward the proposal before the GDA board before sending it to the state government. The board meeting was scheduled for Thursday but it got postponed as the session of the UP assembly is going on. Once the session ends, we will hold the board meeting and get the approval for the proposal,” said Karunesh. Officials said the entire ropeway project will be elevated and based on 27 pillars and will move over the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) alignment near Sahibabad.