GDA approves Rs 3,711 crore metro rail projects in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad (Urban Transport News): The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) on Thursday approved the two detailed project reports (DPRs) for the Delhi Metro extension from Vaishali to Mohan Nagar. Both DPRs were submitted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) to GDA in March this year. The decision was taken in a meeting recently held in Lucknow on November 15 among the UP government, DMRC and GDA officials.

After finalizing the DPRs, Principal Secretary of Uttar Pradesh government has directed the vice-chairperson of GDA to take a call on the route and send a final DPR to the state government. The Vaishali to Mohan Nagar link will be an extension of Blue Line of Delhi Metro Rail Network which will provide commuters with a direct connection to central Delhi from Ghaziabad.

This route will also connect to Sahibabad so that residents from this area can also take the Blue Line at the Mohan Nagar interchange. A detailed discussion on both proposed extensions projects was done in a meeting held on Thursday in the GDA office. Officials from DMRC and NCRTC (National Capital Region Transport Corporation) were attended the meeting. Kanchan Verma, the GDA vice-chairperson, said:

We found that extending the already-operational Anand Vihar to Vaishali route to Mohan Nagar will be cost-effective and also advantageous in terms of ridership it will attract. Besides, it will be constructed on the median of the Link Road (Mohan Nagar to Anand Vihar) and we may not have to acquire private land.

She further said that GDA has asked the DMRC to prepare the final DPR for Vaishali to Mohan Nagar extension along with the funding pattern. Earlier, GDA had refused to contribute towards the rolling stock but we are still not ruling out the possibility of them contributing. In the DPR, GDA has suggested a provision of a station along with a shed so that Sector 63 Metro extension can terminate at Sahibabad easily.

NCRTC has already finalized and awarded tenders for the construction of the RRTS project in Ghaziabad and may not allow a change in the alignment. However, the DMRC officials silent on this matter and declined to comment over the development. The NCRTC has proposed an RRTS station at Sahibabad under the Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor, which will be near the Metro station proposed under the extension.

The two stations will be close and can be connected by an open bridge or skywalk for commuters to interchange between the two systems. All the pros and cons of the two extensions were discussed and the DMRC will now submit the final DPR for Vaishali to Mohan Nagar extension within 10-15 days, at the most.

In February 2018, DMRC had submitted draft detailed project reports for the two new extensions in Ghaziabad for extending Vaishali to Mohan Nagar and sector 63 Electronic City, Noida to Sahibabad. Later, the GDA had directed DMRC to submit a revised DPR considering the integration with the proposed RRTS station in Ghaziabad.

According to the DPRs submitted by DMRC in February 2018, the cost for Vaishali extension is estimated at about Rs 1,785 crores while the other Sector 63 extension is pegged at Rs 1,926 crores. However, the cost may accelerate in the final DPRs.