The state government on Monday cleared decks for the blueprint for Gorakhpur Metro Rail days after chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed the officials to introduce the service in his hometown.
“We got the sanction today and are going ahead with the detailed project report for Gorakhpur Metro Rail. We will submit the DPR within six months,” a senior officer at the housing department told HT.
Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) has been given the task to draft the DPR. “Since Gorakhpur doesn’t have a comprehensive mobility plan (CMP), which is a mandatory pre-requisite for metro rail, RITES has also been asked to prepare the CMP simultaneously with the DPR,” he said.
The blueprint for the Gorakhpur Metro will be prepared under the supervision of Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC), which has been appointed the nodal agency for all metro projects in Uttar Pradesh.
The CM had directed the officials to introduce metro rail service for Gorakhpur on his first visit to his hometown on March 26. A team of top LMRC officials was subsequently rushed to the CM’s constituency to make an on-ground assessment and submit a proposal within a week.
After the DPR is cleared by the state Cabinet, it is forwarded to the Centre for vetting and approval, since these are joint venture projects and the central government has to come on board statutorily.
{{/usCountry}}After the DPR is cleared by the state Cabinet, it is forwarded to the Centre for vetting and approval, since these are joint venture projects and the central government has to come on board statutorily.
{{/usCountry}}The DPR is cleared not only by the union urban development ministry but also needs clearance from finance, railways and civil aviation departments as well.
“The clearance of DPR by the central departments may take 2-3 months”, he added.
With the nod to Gorakhpur Metro, UP becomes the only state in the country with maximum number of cities with metro rail projects in various stages of completion. Closer to the end of its tenure, the Akhilesh Yadav government had given nod to metro projects in Varanasi and Kanpur.
The DPRs of these projects are awaiting clearance from the ministry of urban development. Metro rail service is available in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad.
While work on Phase-IA of the Lucknow Metro project has been completed and the service roll out is expected later this month, project blueprints for Allahabad, Agra and Meerut are also being given final shape.
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