GHAZIABAD (Metro Rail News): The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA), plans to create a detailed project report (DPR) in order to connect Noida Sector 62 Metro Station with Sahibabad and Mohan Nagar Metro Station with Vaishali through Metro Lite, in the city of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh which is likely to get two new metro routes.
Metro Lite is an urban transit system that acts as a feeder system for the city’s current metro systems with lower projected ridership.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) submitted the GDA with a project report in January 2020 that included an estimated expenditure for both routes. For the Sector 62 and Sahibabad route, it estimated a budget of Rs. 1,517 crores, while for the Vaishali and Mohan Nagar route, it estimated a budget of Rs. 1,808.22 crores.
The GDA also received a DPR in 2021 for a ropeway project with a projected 80,000 weekly ridership.
Due to funding concerns with the authority, both the ropeway and Metro Neo projects were dropped, which has hampered the development of a multimodal transportation system.
“We will now prepare a DPR for the two routes with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). The official communication will be sent to DMRC this week. They will find it easy to prepare the DPR as they have already conducted detailed studies for the two routes,” Rakesh Kumar Gupta, chief engineer, GDA told the newspaper Hindustan Times.
“Once the DPR is prepared, we will send it to the state government for approval and also seek funding. The per kilometer cost of Metro Lite is about Rs. 150 crores, lower in comparison to Metro. The passengers per hour per direction (PHPDT) of Metro Neo is about 8,000 and about 15,000 for Metro Lite. Hence, we are now looking to prepare a DPR for Metro Lite. The ropeway project is not being considered at present,” he added.
The residents and everyday commuters between Ghaziabad, Delhi, and Noida have made the connection of the relevant metro routes a top priority.
“The authority has no funds and the two metro routes cannot be connected with any other mode of transport. The GDA must try to get their pending infrastructure development funds from the state government and execute the project,” Rajendra Tyagi, councilor, Raj Nagar, told Hindustan Times.
“The GDA is just trying to confuse people by jumping from one project to other. They must wait till their financial position improves and build metro connectivity so that commuters don’t need to break their journey midway,” said Sanjay Singh, councilor, Shipra Sun City, Indirapuram.
