The state government would finalise the alignment of the Metro corridor by September-end. According to senior officers in the government, Patna would have an east-west (Patna City to Danapur) Metro corridor. The urban development and housing department is in the process of finalising the routes. According to sources, chief minister Nitish Kumar has directed urban development and housing department secretary S. Siddharth and road construction department secretary Pratyaya Amrit to finalise the alignment soon. Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) — the agency appointed to prepare the detailed project report — is also expected to submit its feasibility study based on the alignment selected by the government by early October. “Siddharth and Amrit were supposed to go on a site visit along the proposed alignment last Friday (September 6) but it was postponed at the last minute. They are expected to visit the site any day this week so that the alignment report could be given to the RITES to help finalise the feasibility report,” said a senior officer in the government. Pratyaya told The Telegraph on Tuesday: “According to the instructions of the chief minister, I am supposed to co-ordinate with the secretary of urban development and housing department to finalise the alignment for the Metro corridor in Patna. A site visit in this regard has not yet been finalised.” According to sources, the alignment of the Metro is being planned in a way that it would be an east-west corridor, a stretch of 30km that would connect the major residential and commercial areas. “The Metro corridor in Patna would be mostly underground. This would ensure minimum displacement of the existing structures. We are going to finalise the alignment soon,” said Siddharth. A RITES official said they would submit the feasibility report within a few days once they are given the alignment summary. “According to initial talks with the government, the proposed Metro railway would connect important pockets in Patna. The stations would be at a distance of 1-1.5km on an average. The per-km construction cost would vary between Rs 250 crore and Rs 500 crore,” said a senior RITES executive in Delhi. On June 17, a memorandum of understanding for a feasibility study and also for the preparation of a detailed project report was signed between Arbind Kumar, the director (projects) of RITES and Siddharth. The feasibility study and the detailed project report would give a traffic demand assessment study, topographic survey for the entire stretch, a soil investigation report, identification of station locations and development of a preliminary concept plan. The project report would also give an abstract cost estimate and an assessment of preliminary economic and financial liability of the project. Earlier, the urban development and housing department had allocated funds to the tune of Rs 9 crore for the techno-economic feasibility study for the Metro in the 2013-14 budget. The cabinet on June 12, appointed the RITES to prepare the detailed project report. Will the east-west Metro corridor serve the city best? *rahul* — with Rishi Raj.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 09:55:50 +0000
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