METRO PROJECTS IN AGRA, KANPUR AND MEERUT GET THE NOD

The Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday decided to start metro services in Agra, Kanpur and Meerut cities by 2024 at a total estimated cost of ₹47,168 crore.

“Metro services will be started in Agra, Kanpur and Meerut cities. The entire project will be completed by 2024,” said cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh.

He said the decision to start the services was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Singh said there would be two metro corridors in Agra and the project will cost more than ₹13,936 crore.

“The Kanpur project would have 31 stations and it would be 30-km-long costing over ₹18,342 crore, while Meerut metro project would be of 33 km costing ₹14,890 crore,” he said.

The decision comes close on the heels of the Adityanath government giving its approval for setting up of the Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), on the lines of the Maharashtra Rail Corporation. The existing Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation would be restructured and given the shape of a ‘single special purpose vehicle.’ “Under the new set up instead of forming separate SPVs, we would now just have UPMRC project director in each city to oversee these projects. Consequently, the SPV floated for Kanpur Metro in 2016 now stands abolished and likewise the Noida Metro Rail Corporation would also act as a subsidiary unit of UPMRC,” said an official.

In September, last year, the Centre had sent back the DPR of Kanpur and Varanasi Metro Rail asking the authorities here to rework on them to make them comply with the norms laid down in the new metro rail policy. The decision to turn down the DPR of Kanpur Metro project had come as a surprise as the foundation stone of the project was laid by the then union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu on October 4, 2016 in Kanpur.

With the nod to three more metro projects, Uttar Pradesh becomes the only State in the country with maximum number of cities where the (metro rail) service is either already available or the projects are underway. Cities where the service plies include NOIDA, Greater NOIDA, Ghaziabad. While work on 22-kilometer-long NorthSouth corridor of the Lucknow Metro Rail metro project is expected to be completed by 2019, project blueprints for Gorakhpur, Allahabad and Varanasi are also being given final shape.