Gurugram: A day after Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced expansion of Gurugram’s metro rail system, opinion is divided on the benefits and challenges of the plan.
Part of the National Capital Region (NCR), Gurugram has rapidly developed into a business and corporate hub, with modern apartment complexes coming up to meet the housing needs of its plush office spaces. While the city is already connected to Delhi by Metro, the extension announced by the CM in his budget speech on Thursday, said Naveen Sardana, chairman and managing director of real estate firm Whiteland Corporation, will help boost the real estate market.
However, residents point to last-mile challenges, claiming that the proposed Metro upgrade will only help if they are addressed.
“The biggest problem of Gurugram is that the metro is not an ideal mode of transport due to lack of last-mile connectivity. The streets of Gurugram are already very congested. We have underpasses which get washed away during rains. The government needs to rectify all this,” said Inder Prakash, representative of the United Residents Welfare Association of Gurugram.
Khattar announced this in his budget speech on Thursday Permission The Central Government’s Public Investment Board for the long-pending Gurugram Metro Rail expansion has already been received, and only final approval from the Union Cabinet is awaited.
It is expected to cover a distance of 28.5 km from HUDA City Center via Cyber City, Subhash Chowk, Krishna Chowk and Sector 22 – The extended route will have 27 stops, including a station to change lines. The project is expected to cost Rs 6,400 crore, and the CM expressed hope that construction work would begin in the financial year 2023-24.
The expansion project is reportedly languishing for the last five years.
Haryana Finance Minister Khattar said, “I am hopeful that the construction work of Gurugram Metro will start in 2023-24.”
He also announced three new metro rail projects in his budget for the 2023-24 financial year – Rezang La (Gurugram) Chowk to Delhi link to Indira Gandhi International Airport, Global City and Southern Peripheral Road to Panchgaon via Manesar And the extension of Bahadurgarh Metro up to Asoudha will be linked to the Haryana Orbital Rail Network and the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway.
In the Rs 1.83 lakh crore budget, Khattar allocated Rs 5,408 crore for the roads, highways and railways sector.
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elevated railway line, city bus services
The budget speech included proposals for elevated railway lines in Bahadurgarh and Kaithal and city bus service in nine cities of the state.
Khattar said, “We will start city bus service in nine municipal corporation cities of Haryana and also in Rewari city and augment the existing city bus service in Gurugram, Manesar and Faridabad.”
He further said: “Procurement of 550 AC electric buses is in an advanced stage, of which 175 are mini buses. The city bus service will be provided through a special purpose vehicle in partnership with urban local bodies and the transport department. I hope That services will be available in all cities in 2023-24, which will bring relief to commuters and commuters in these cities.
The Haryana CM also proposed setting up six new multi-modal bus ports at Gurugram, Ballabhgarh, Hisar, Sonipat, Karnal and Pipli in public-private partnership (PPP) mode, and a city interchange terminal near the city center of Gurugram.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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