RailEnquiry

GUWAHATI: Work for the ambitious metro rail project in Guwahati is likely to start in 2015, said officials of Guwahati Development Department (GDD). GDD officials said the next few weeks will be crucial for giving a momentum to the project which is aimed at boosting public transport in the city."The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has submitted Request for Proposal (RFP) for carrying out pre-feasibility study on the project to the state government about a month ago. The RFP needs to be cleared by the government before GMDA floats tenders to invite firms to carry out pre-feasibility study and prepare a detailed project report (DPR)," an official here said.GMDA officials added that they are expecting the state government to clear the RFP by September-end, which will give an impetus to the metro rail project.M Angamuthu, chief executive officer of GMDA, told TOI that once the RFP is cleared by the government, GMDA will float a global tender inviting firms to conduct the pre-feasibility study on the project. He said the pre-feasibility study will present a clear view about the project. "It will decide where the stations should be constructed, whether metro rail will be over ground or underground and also the route alignments," he added.

Angamuthu said if everything goes well, the pre-feasibility study should commence by this year end or beginning of 2014. And, the pre-feasibly study and preparation of DPR will take another one year. "We are hopeful that by 2015, work of the project will kick off," he said.

The GMDA has recently sought Rs 25 crore from the Assam Infrastructure Financing Authority for meeting the expenditures of conducting the pre-feasibility study and preparation of DPR. Sources in GDD said it will take at least six years to complete the first phase of the metro rail project in the city which is estimated to be constructed at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore.

Under the metro rail project in Guwahati, 64.50 km and 56.30 km will be covered in the first and second phase respectively, while in the third phase 75.50 km will be covered.