‘Indigenously made Metro coaches being exported’
With a strong emphasis on Make in India policy, the indigenously made Metro coaches are being exported to Canada and Australia, said Durga Shankar Mishra, secretary, urban and housing affairs, Government of India, at a seminar in the ‘New Urban India Conclave, 2021’ in Lucknow .
Lucknow “No one In India believed that Metro services would be such a big success . Our history of the Metro is only 25-years-old but today, under the ‘Make in India policy, our indigenously made Metro coaches are being exported to Canada and Australia,” said Durga Shankar Mishra, secretary, urban and housing affairs, Government of India.
Mishra was addressing the seminar on ‘Status of Metro Rail on 100 Years of India’s Independence’ organized during the three-day ‘New Urban India Conclave, 2021’ in Lucknow at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan on Wednesday.
He said, “Revolutionary changes have taken place in the field of public transport. Metro has played an important role in making urban transport safe, convenient, fast and accessible.”
Managing directors of different Metro organisations from all over the country participated and shared their views in the seminar.
Mishra said, “Metro is the need of urban transport and after 25 years from today, when 100 years of independence will be completed, then Metro will have achieved expansion in at least 100 cities of the country, extending the network up to 5,000 kms.”
Target to export Metro
He said , “Today Metro has more than 750 km network and by 2022, 150 kms of additional Metro network will be added. With a strong emphasis on Make in India policy, the indigenously made Metro coaches are being exported to Canada and Australia. Our goal is: when we celebrate hundred years of Independence, we should not only be self-reliant in every aspect related to Metro construction, but also be able to meet the needs of other countries.”
UP Metro
Managing director, Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Kumar Keshav gave a presentation on the rapid expansion of Metro in Uttar Pradesh. He said that after the expansion of 23 km of Lucknow, a trial run of Metro was proposed in Kanpur in November, while fast construction was going on in Agra. Metrolite project in Gorakhpur had already been approved by the state government and sent to the central government for approval. There was a plan to construct an operational metro route of 28 kilometres, he said.
Lucknow to have six more Metro routes
Kumar Keshav said , “Considering the traffic analytics and growing congestion in Lucknow, a techno feasibility study of six other Metro routes was conducted, according to which 114 kms of routes have been identified in the city.”
He said that according to the Metro Policy 2017, a Metro project could be brought in the cities with a population of more than 10 lakh and there were 12 such cities in the state. DPRs for Meerut, Prayagraj and Varanasi had been prepared while proposals for cities like Jhansi, Ayodhya and Saharanpur were under consideration.
