Title - Rs 10,300cr Metro project gets nod

LUDHIANA: The twin evils of traffic congestion and pollution might soon be on their way out of the city. In a major development for city's infrastructure, the state government on Tuesday gave its green signal to the Ludhiana Metro project involving an investment of Rs 10,300 crore. The mega project is scheduled to be completed within the next five years.The Metro is expected to drastically reduce traffic congestion, which has increased manifold as the number of vehicles in Ludhiana has increased from 10 lakh a decade ago to nearly 20 lakh now.In a meeting held at the chief ministers' office, officials of Punjab Industrial Development Board said two corridors of the Metro will cover the entire Ludhiana city. "One corridor will be from Ayali Chowk to BBMB Power House and another from Gill village to Rahon Road Chungi. The Metro would have a total length of about 29 km and have 27 stations in the city," said Rakesh Singh, the chief secretary.The state government would provide the land required for execution of the project. Though the officials stressed on executing the underground Metro corridor, especially in densely populated areas, the only stumbling block would be its being capital intensive. It was also felt that elevated Metro corridor would necessitate displacement of a large number of people in the congested city and this would in turn lead to problems of its own kind. The Centre had, in principle, decided to extend a technical-cum-financial package to make the Metro operational in Ludhiana last year. The first corridor would be 15.798 km long and have 14 stations. The second would be 13.035 km long with 13 stations. It was expected to cost around Rs 6,600 crore when it was envisaged nearly three years ago but now the cost has crossed the Rs-10,000 crore mark.

The principal secretary local government, Suresh Kumar, said that the ministry of urban development had convened a meeting to review the project for appraisal at New Delhi. The local government department also submitted a proposal for the setting up of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for smooth and effective implementation of the project, which was approved in the meeting.