The Delhi government does not have the financial wherewithal to bear its share of construction cost for the proposed Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor and the Centre should bear the cost, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has conveyed to the Centre.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has, however, given in-principle approval for the project, which will see the construction of three seminal stations located in the territorial jurisdiction of the Capital to be constructed at a cost of ₹1,138 crore.
Mr. Kejriwal wrote a letter to Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri regarding the fund crunch following a meeting at Nirman Bhawan earlier this week.
Big numbers
“The Delhi government is ready to grant in-principle approval for implementation of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor... However, the Delhi government does not have adequate finances to meet the cost. Therefore, I would urge that Delhi’s share in the project cost be borne by the Central government,” Mr. Kejriwal wrote.
As per the revised estimate submitted by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), the completion of the 82.15 km corridor was pegged at ₹31, 902 crore.
The 13-km-stretch of the RRTS in the city is estimated to cost ₹1,138 crore.
The stretch includes two elevated RRTS stations at Sarai Kale Khan and Ashok Nagar, and an underground station at Anand Vihar.
Incorporated in 2013, the NCRTC was constituted to implement the RRTS project in the National Capital Region (NCR).
The Centre and the governments of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan are part of the NCRTC.
The corporation was mandated with the creation of the first-of-its-kind project in the country, which will require nearly 120 government agencies from across several northern States to work in sync for successful materialisation of their joint multi-crore dream.
Sources in the Delhi government said that Sarai Kale Khan, which is geographically hemmed in between an inter-State expressway, an upcoming metro station, an under-construction extension of the yet-to-materialise phase-III of Barapullah flyover and a railway station, was supposed to serve as the backbone of the project in the Capital.
The Anand Vihar and Kashmere Gate stations, which have similar profiles, were also contenders to emerge as the core of one of the most ambitious high-speed inter-State public transportation networks in India.
Besides the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS, two other corridors have been proposed: one to Panipat and another to Alwar.