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Gurgaon-Delhi Metro link decision soon
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 23
The Haryana Government is waiting for the Delhi Government to finalise the Delhi Metro’s alignment to Gurgaon so that it can expedite its project of linking its commercial capital with Delhi with a metro line.

The link is likely to finalised soon after RITES submits the traffic-study report for the ridership prospects beyond Qutab Minar till the Delhi border. A meeting has been planned between the Urban Affairs Ministry and Delhi Government officials to finalise the link.

Though Gurgaon has been promoted as the Millennium City by Haryana, the satellite city lacks a good public transport system. The proposed Metro link is expected to change the face of the city teeming with malls, call centres, MNCs, businesses etc.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) submitted a Detailed Project Report for the proposed link to Gurgaon way back in December 2004.

“Haryana never made any firm commitments and does not even have any budget allocations for the project,” DMRC officials say.

Later, the Metro link ran into trouble, with the Archaeological Survey of India putting its foot down on the metro line near Qutab Minar. The Delhi Government also did not show interest in taking the link beyond Qutab Minar as not very heavy traffic is expected beyond that. It is from this end that the metro link till IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon has been proposed as per the original DPR, with stations at Ambedkar Nagar, Andheria Bagh, Sultanpur, Ghitomi, Arjan Garh, Nathupur, Sikandarpur and IFFCO Chowk.

To tackle this problem, the Delhi Government asked RITES to conduct a traffic study for the ridership prospects beyond Qutab Minar till the Delhi border, the report of which is expected any time now.

In all likelihood, the alignment beyond Qutab Minar will be changed. However, even if the same link is maintained the cost of the project, which as per the 1984-DPR was approximately Rs 1,579 crore, will go up by Rs 400 to 500 crore.