Delhi Metro

Green will be the colour of Patna Metro coaches.

With the final detailed project report (DPR) expecting to be ready by August 31, urban development minister Samrat Choudhary said the colour of the coaches was expected to be green primarily.

“The final DPR will be sent to the Centre for an approval by August 31. A survey in connection with the routes of Patna Metro has been done by RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services) and has been approved by the state government. It is only after the DPR has been submitted, the state will be in a position to say anything specific about the project,” he said.

“At present, we cannot comment much about the number of coaches or the number of trains will be running. But some of the tracks will be elevated as well as underground. We are interested in the green colour as Bihar is mainly a land of agriculture. A majority of people live in the villages. Patna Metro should identify with the state and its people. It should identify with agriculture and farmers. However, things will be finalised later,” Choudhary said.

In India, coaches of Metro have not been painted green anywhere in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore. While Delhi Metro is silver with patch of orange and blue, Calcutta has two types of colour: yellow and blue.

Patna Metro has been given a final nod by the urban development and housing department. The project, which has seen several ups and downs, is expected to see a total of three routes in phase-1. Route 1A is expected to be 14.5km in length and will touch Danapur, Mithapur, Bypass Chowk, high court and Patna Junction.

Route 1B, which is proposed to be 5.5km, will connect Digha to Mithapur via Patna Junction. Route-2 will see the Metro touching areas like Dakbungalow roundabout, Gandhi Maidan, Rajendra Nagar railway station, Agamkuan, Gandhi Setu and the length of the same is expected to be 16km.

All these routes are expected to have a total of 33 stations in all.

“Once the DPR is submitted to the Centre, we will wait for the approval after which the work will be started in phases. It is not possible to talk about a fixed time about the start and finish of work as it is a huge project costing more than Rs 8,000 crore and three phases,” the minister said.