The Delhi Metro rail

The groundwork of over two years for finalising the Metro corridor has been completed as the state government on Thursday gave in-principle approval to the draft technical feasibility and detailed project report (DPR) for the project.

The DPR has narrowed down the entire Metro network to two corridors in the first phase covering 31km.

The first corridor suggested by the draft DPR is an east-west one, which would run from Mithapur bus stand to Saguna Mor via Bailey Road and Patna Junction, covering a distance of 14.5km.

The second would be a north- south corridor, which would run from Patna Junction to the proposed bus stand at Bairiya on Patna-Gaya Road via Ashok Rajpath, Gandhi Maidan and Rajendra Nagar Terminal, covering 16.5km.

The approval on DPR was given in a high-level meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh.

Setting aside the option of public-private partnership (PPP) mode for execution of the project entailing an estimated outlay of Rs 14,000 crore, a decision was also taken in the meeting to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for it. The SPV would be named as Patna Metro Rail Corporation and both central and state governments would contribute 20 per cent of the project cost. The state government would approach international financial agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), World Bank or Asian Development Bank for remaining 60 per cent of the project cost. Sources claimed that the JICA is most likely to be approached to seek financial assistance for the project.

The urban development and housing department, the nodal department for the project, would now send a formal proposal to the cabinet for final approval on the DPR.

“A proposal would also be sent to the cabinet for appointment of Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) as an interim project consultant. RITES would continue to provide its technical expertise to the department in making progress in the project,” said a senior official of the urban development and housing department.

The meeting also decided to form an inter-departmental coordination committee and seek feedback from them on further execution on the project.