GHAZIABAD: Shelved for nearly five years due to perceived high costs, the cost of the 5km extension of the Blue Line from Noida Electronic City to Sahibabad —where it will be linked with the priority section of the rapid rail corridor—is likely to go up by another Rs 350 crore.
A revised project report submitted by the Delhi Metro on Tuesday has pegged the project’s cost at Rs 1,873 crore, up from the estimated Rs 1,517 crore in a 2018 report.
The report suggests that 80% of the project cost, which is Rs 1,225.34 crore, should be borne by the state government through its agencies. UP will also foot another Rs 111.8 crore in state taxes. Of the nearly 26,691 sqm of land required for the route alignment, nearly 7,690sqm is privately owned and is estimated to cost over Rs 223 crore.
According to the report, the Centre will share 15.3% of the project cost, amounting to nearly Rs 235 crore, besides the Rs 71.9 crore central taxes.
With funding a key hurdle, GDA had earlier considered obtaining a loan from the NCR Planning Board to finance the crucial corridor. It also explored alternative ideas, such as the metro neo and two alternative routes — Vaishali to Mohan Nagar and Vaishali to Electronic City — before ultimately discarding them.
GDA’s chief engineer Manvendra Singh said DMRC’s first project report for the metro corridor tying up the two legs of the Blue Line was submitted in 2018 but later put off the table. In June last year, the project was revived with a new plan that proposed connecting Electronic City and Vaishali on DMRC’s Blue line. This plan involved a 5.8-km metro line via Indirapuram, and a joint survey was conducted by DMRC and GDA. As the focus shifted to multi-modal integration, GDA and DMRC in September reverted to the original route that aimed to link Sahibabad rapid rail station with Noida.
“When the first DPR of the Electronic City-Sahibabad metro extension project was prepared by DMRC in 2018, the Namo Bharat corridor was not operational. With the opening of the 17km priority section of the rapid rail corridor, GDA asked DMRC to submit a fresh route plan. The DMRC has suggested linking the Sahibabad metro station with the existing Sahibabad Namo Bharat station with a foot overbridge that will act as an interchange,” Singh said.
