The Centre on Monday decided to go ahead with Phase IV of Delhi Metro and the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System(RRTS) project on its own without waiting any further either for the Delhi Government’s approval or its financial commitment.

The Delhi Government has not approved the fourth phase of Metro and the RRTS project as it has not finalised the funding pattern of these projects, which would help reduce travel time and traffic jams on roads.

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that his Ministry will go ahead with the Delhi Metro phase IV and RRTS projects without the Delhi Government’s financial commitment to these projects. “The project will be taken up without approval of the Delhi Government,” he said.

“This means that the process for the fourth phase of Delhi Metro and the RRTS projects will be started after the Union Cabinet’s approval. Normally, the cabinet approval from both the Delhi and Centre is mandatory to start the projects. If the State Government (Delhi Government) does not give approval, then the projects would get approved from the Union Cabinet so that they are not delayed further,” said officials of HUA Ministry. On the other hand, Delhi Government has not been approved these two projects from the Cabinet till date.

Last month, Delhi Metro had sent a proposal of three metro corridors to the Ministry for approval. The three routes identified as priority corridors - Janakpuri West to RK Ashram, Maujpur to Mukundpur and Aerocity to Tughlaqabad - have a combined length of 61.66km. According to DMRC estimates, the cost of constructing these three corridors would be around Rs 34580 crore.

At present, DMRC is finishing work on Phase III, which is expected to be wrapped up by June this year. The agency wants to start construction of Phase IV before work on Phase III finishes so that the manpower and machinery present at the sites can be used without any break. “Once Phase III is complete and there is a delay in starting work on Phase IV, men and machinery would have to be mobilised again resulting in further delay and cost overrun,” an official said.

Last year, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had met HUA minister Hardeep Singh Puri in September and assured the proposal regarding Phase-IV of Delhi Metro will soon be sent to the Ministry as per the financing policy norms for further consideration and approval. As far as Delhi Meerut RRTS corridor is concerned, the Delhi Government has not given approval despite several reminders by the Ministry of HUA.

The corridor will pass through densely populated areas of Delhi, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad city, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar and Modinagar, and will terminate at Modipuram in Meerut. The total cost of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS is estimated Rs 32,598 crore. The corridor is likely to start operation by 2024. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is planned for multi-modal integration at Sarai Kalen Khan, Anand Vihar and Sahibabad where commuters can interchange for other transport modes like the Metro.