Title - Indore, Bhopal metro dream may take shape soon

INDORE: Ambitious project of developing metro rail system in Indore and Bhopal is expected to take off soon. Urban administration and development ministry has sent terms of reference (TOR) of the project to the state government for their approval. Once the government gave approval to TOR work on preparing detail project report (DPR) of metro rail will begin.

Principal Secretary of Urban Administration Development Department (UADD), SPS Parihar said that the terms of reference (TOR) for the DPR have been sent to the government. Once they approved it, bids will be invited for the project. He added that preparation of DPR will cost Rs 6 crores. Fifty per cent of the cost of preparing DPR will be covered by union government while rest 50% will be given by state government.

Metro rail project for Indore will cost Rs 8500 crores while metro rail for Bhopal will cost Rs 8000 crores. Seventy per cent of the project cost will be covered by loans while centre and state government will chip in with 15 per cent share of the project cost.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) which had conducted the feasibility survey for the project had said in its survey report that metro rail will be feasible in the city by 2019. The survey had proposed three corridor for metro in Indore; Green (East-West Corridor), Red (Eastern North-South Corridor) and Blue (Western North-South Corridor).

Official said that DPR will be extensive document which will minute details regarding locations, number of metro stations, terminals and trains. Route alignment of the metro may little vary in DPR from the feasibility survey report.