GDA returns metro report, wants feasibility, location info

GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad Development Authority has sent back a project report prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for two metro extensions, asking it to include several details such as financial feasibility and the location of the land needed for the project.
The GDA has given DMRC one week to include the points and submit the final report, officials said.

“The DPR (detailed project report) for the two proposed metro extensions — Noida Sector 62 to Sahibabad and Vaishali to Mohan Nagar — was submitted by DMRC earlier this month, but it failed to include several important points. So, it was sent back,” said Ishtiaq Ahmed, the GDA’s chief architect and town planner. “There is neither a mention of the financial feasibility nor the exact location of the 10 acres required for the project,” he added.

The GDA has also directed the DMRC to include a report on feeder bus services. “The revised DPR needs to be submitted in one week and only after that, it will be sent to the state government,” Ahmed said.

According to the official, a report on the financial feasibility is important because it is only after its implementation that the GDA can strive to recover the cost of the project through transit-orientated development and other means.

The DMRC had on February 1 submitted the DPR for the two proposed metro extensions. The projects have been pegged at Rs 3,711 crore.

The DPR has said the Noida Sector 62-Sahibabad link will be 5.11km long and constructed on an elevated platform. It will have four stations —Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram, Shakti Khand and Vasundhara Sector 5. This estimated cost for this section is Rs 1,926 crore.

The second part of the project — Vaishali to Mohan Nagar — will be 5.06km in length and is likely to cost Rs 1,785 crore. It will have four stations — Prahlad Garhi, Sector 14 of Vasundhara, Sahibabad and Mohan Nagar.

Union minister and Ghaziabad MP VK Singh on Saturday held a review meeting on various development projects and was apparently told that the 9.41km Dilshad Garden-New Bus station metro project was facing a funds crunch.