Title - 16 trains, 30 stations in Metro first phase

Detailed project report submitted to UT Administrator; construction to start by next year. As many as 16 trains with four coaches each would ply in the tricity in the first phase of the Metro Rail project, and there would be 30 metro stations in all located at a distance of around 1.2 km.These details were part of a presentation on the Metro Rail made to UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil along with officials of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Thursday. A copy of the detailed project report was presented to the Administrator by the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. The project entails 37 km of Metro Rail in the Tricity and the total project cost, including the land, will be Rs 10,900 crore.The construction of the Metro Rail is expected to start by next year and be completed by the end of 2018. Two corridors would be constructed in the first phase. The North-South corridor would start from a site close to Capitol Complex near Secretariat, High Court and Rock Garden. It would reach Sector 17 Plaza through UT Secretariat on Jan Marg, Sector 22, 35, and ISBT-43. After crossing Chandigarh, the Metro would move towards Sohana from where it would take a left turn towards Aerocity in Mohali where a terminal station is proposed to be built.The other route known as East-West corridor would start from Sector 21, Panchkula, and lead to the railway station in Chandigarh, Sector 17 Plaza, PGIMER, Sarangpur and reach up to Mullanpur in Mohali.

There would be six trains plying on the North-South corridor. The projected population that is likely to travel on this route is around 1.6 lakh. On the East-West corridor, there would be 10 trains and around 1.7 lakh people are expected to travel.

The proposed North-South corridor for Chandigarh would constitute 8.04 km underground and 4.43 km elevated track while

the East-West corridor has a proposed length of 6.04 km underground track

and 19.04 km of elevated track. The state of Punjab would have a total track length of 7.8 km and Haryana would have a total track length of 6.41 km running through its territory under this project.

Within Chandigarh in the sectoral grid, Metro would be underground. The aim is to preserve the basic character of the city. While the cost of construction will be almost three times higher when the Metro is constructed underground, the same is being done to ensure that the skyline of the city is not tampered with. It is where the sector grid ends that the Metro would be elevated.

The peak hours are being considered as being between 7 am and 10 am when the frequency of trains would be every 12 minutes. However, during lean hours, frequency would be between 16 and 30 minutes. There would be 30 metro stations in all. The stations would be located at an average distance of 1.210 km on the North-South corridor and at an average distance of 1.206 km on the East-West corridor.

The metro stations would be present on

the intersections of the sectors apart from those at the terminal stations. These would include the bus stands in sectors 17 and 43 as well as the Railway Station. The UT Administration has started bus service on the proposed Metro route. The aim is to ensure better connectivity with the proposed metro stations.