E-Paper
Yogi Adityanath flags off trial run of Kanpur Metro
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed that the commercial run of Kanpur Metro should start between December 15 and 20
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday flagged off the trial run of the Kanpur Metro rail service, and said the people of the city would be able to avail of the best transport within four to six weeks.
The trial run was done for the IIT Kanpur-Motijheel corridor (first phase), covering a distance of nine kilometres.
Yogi Adityanath said the process for the Kanpur Metro trial would be completed in the next four to six weeks.
“It (Kanpur Metro rail service) will be launched for the people of Kanpur by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
The Kanpur Metro project was launched on November 19, 2019.
Yogi Adityanath, who flagged off the first trial run at the metro depot on the Kanpur polytechnic premises, said Kanpur should have had a metro rail service a long time ago but other political parties kept ignoring the city’s requirements and the previous governments remained a failure on this front.
He has instructed that the commercial operation of Kanpur Metro should commence between December 15 and 20. The Metro was a joint venture of the state and the central governments, he said.
No city in Uttar Pradesh had a metro service before 2017, but it was now available in Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida and Noida, he said. Kanpur is going to join this club, he said, adding that the state would become the first in the country with Metro rail services in five cities.
The process was sped up after 2017, he said, adding that the Kanpur Metro was a state-of-the-art service.
“Kanpur will not be a metro city in terms of population but truly a metro city after this launch,” he said.
For the last 19 months, the whole world and the country faced the Covid-19 global pandemic, he said, adding that despite this major obstacle, the UP Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) managed to complete the project and it was a big achievement.
Earlier, UPMRC managing director Kumar Keshav apprised the chief minister about the Kanpur Metro project and presented him a model.
In the first phase, the Metro trains would run on a nine-km route between IIT Kanpur and Motijheel. In the second phase, the service would be available on the Transport Nagar- Motijheel route as well.
The Samajwadi Party accused the BJP government of taking credit for projects launched during its regime.
Samajwadi Party city president Imran (who uses one name only) said the foundation of this project was laid by the then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in 2016, in the presence of the then Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu and the then Kanpur MP Murali Manohar Joshi. In the last five years, the BJP has done nothing but claim credit for the projects and schemes launched by SP government, he said.
