Decks cleared for Union cabinet nod to Patna metro rail project

PATNA: The Centre’s public investment board (PIB) gave its nod to Patna metro rail project on Wednesday.

Now it will go to the central cabinet for final approval, said state urban development and housing department (UDHD) principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad, who made a presentation on the detailed project report (DPR).


UDHD minister Suresh Kumar Sharma had said on Tuesday that PM Narendra Modi was likely to lay the foundation stone of the project on March 3. The PM is to address a rally of NDA that day.

Any project entailing an outlay of above Rs10,000 crore is approved by the PIB, which is chaired by the Union finance secretary. It is a pre-requisite before sending it to the cabinet.

A senior bureaucrat said the PIB checks the technical feasibility of the project and whether it will be able to meet the expenditure. “The cabinet approval is a political decision and generally all those projects cleared by the PIB get its nod. Since both the state and the Centre have NDA government, Patna metro rail project is likely to get cabinet’s approval soon,” he said.

A special purpose vehicle christened Patna Metro Rail Corporation (PMRC) has already been formed to execute the project. UDHD special secretary Sanjay Dayal said it would take around five years to complete the project. After the Union cabinet’s approval, PMRC will start the bidding process to hire agencies to carry out different works. The estimated expenditure of the project is Rs13,400 crore.

As per the DPR, the 14.5km-long east-west corridor will cover Saguna Mor, Bailey Road, Patna Junction and Mithapur bus stand. The 16.5km-long north-south corridor, on the other hand, will connect Patna Junction with the proposed bus stand at Bairiya via Ashok Rajpath, Gandhi Maidan and Rajendra Nagar terminal. While the east-west corridor will mostly be underground, the north-south corridor will be elevated one.