NMRC to soon finalise agency for construction of Aqua Line extension

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) on Sunday said it will finalise a private agency for the construction of the first phase of the extension corridor of its

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) on Sunday said it will finalise a private agency for the construction of the first phase of the extension corridor of its Aqua Line, which will take Metro connectivity deeper into Noida and neighbouring Greater Noida, in a month and a half.

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The Noida and Greater Noida authorities, with the support of the state and central government, together want to build a new Metro Link that will branch out from the existing Aqua Line’s Sector 51 Metro station and end at Greater Noida’s Sector Knowledge Park 5.

“We have opened the tenders and found three private agencies have submitted their respective bids. It will take us a month and a half to finalise a successful bidder. The work will start after we get the requisite approvals from the Union government once an agency is finalised,” said managing director of NMRC, Ritu Maheshwari, who is also the chief executive officer of Noida authority.

The NMRC had started the process of inviting the bids for this elevated 14.95-km long Metro link on June 9, 2020. The corporation had said it did not want the coronavirus disease pandemic to delay the work on this ambitious project that will provide connectivity to newly built housing societies of Noida and Greater Noida West (also known as Noida Extension).

The NMRC wants to start working the construction of Metro stations under the first phase and the via-duct of this portion and has laid down a budget of ₹430 crore for the same.

Earlier this year in January, the NMRC had started the survey for testing of soil, topography and geography for the Metro Link which is set to branch out from the existing 29.707km Aqua Line, which started running in January 2019.