Ahmedabad, 16 January 2014

State Finance Minister and Metro Rail project high power committee’s head Nitin Patel today in a statement said that a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Narendra Modi was held to review the Metro rail project. The previous route of Metro Rail in Ahmedabad has been slightly modified in the meeting.

He said the modifications in previous route are done after detailed house hold survey, traffic analysis, geo-technical investigation, topographical survey, multi-model integration analysis, environment impact assessment, financial and economic viability etc related studies.

Nitin Patel further said that the state government had earlier sent a detailed project report(dpr) as per the old route to central government which was returned for clarifications on some points. Now state will send a new dpr on the basis of newly approved route. It will be as per the guidelines of government of India. The first phase will cost around Rs. 10,000 crore and dpr in this regard will be sent to government of India soon. After approval to it, the central government will also join the Metro rail project.

The state government has approved following routes:

(1) Thaltej – Drive-In road – Helmet char rasta, Vijay char rasta – Commerce college chha rasta – Stadium char rasta – Ashram road – Khanpur – Shahpur – Relief road – Gheekanta – Kalupur railway station – Amraiwadi – Vastral – Sardar Patel ring road

(2)Vasna APMC – Anjali – Paldi – V.S.Hospital – Ashram road – Vadaj – Ranip AEC – Sabarmati – Motera stadium

Patel said, the areas of east and west Ahmedabad will enjoy metro rail connection with Kalupur railway station. He said the new route will connect east and west parts of Ahmedabad. The first phase works will start in 2014 and complete before 2018. First phase route within Ahmedabad will be 34 km long. The areas between APMC – Motera connection will be extended to airport and Gandhinagar in future.

He said the first phase route covers developing areas like Ramol-Vastral, busy areas of Amraiwadi, Khokhra, wall city areas of Kalpur, Relief road, Gandhi road, Tran Darwaja, Khanpur, Shahpur etc. On this route 7 km stretch will be under ground. He said 20% route of Metro rail will be underground, while 80% will be elevated.

The tasks including Sabarmati to Gandhinagar route with Gift city and airport connectivity and bringing Metro rail to Paldi, Danilimda, Isanpur, Hatkeshwar, Memko, Civil hospital areas will be taken up in phase wise manner.