Patna: National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Patna on Tuesday made a presentation before the urban development and housing department on the Patna Metro rail project.

While Rites, an agency of Indian railways, is making the detailed project report (DPR) on the project, NIT-Patna is also conducting a survey simultaneously.

"The papers prepared by NIT-Patna regarding the comprehensive mobility plan and alternative analysis plan of Metro rail in Patna have been sent to Rites," Suresh Kumar Sharma, the urban development and housing minister, said after the presentation.

The minister said that his department officers would go to New Delhi on May 21 to discuss the project with the secretary of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.

The DPR, Sharma said, would be sent to the Centre in June for approval.

"Once the DPR is sent to the Centre, we would take up the matter of financial prospects. There are a few foreign agencies that want to work in collaboration with us," he added.

On January 27 this year, Sharma had told The Telegraph that the DPR would be sent to the Centre "in all probability" by April.

The delay raises the question whether work on the project would start on schedule this year.

Patna was supposed to be the seventh Indian city to have the Metro after Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur and Chennai.

Work on the project started in 2011 with the Planning Commission of India giving its approval. But with the Metro rolling out in Lucknow last year and the Nagpur Metro project supposed to be ready soon, Patna now lags behind.

The Patna Metro project is scheduled to be completed by 2021 at an estimated cost of Rs 16,960 crore. The proposed network will have 25 stations and will run from Danapur Cantonment to Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) on the Patna-Gaya road.

"Both the time and cost of the project could escalate further as these are the earlier estimations," an urban development and housing department official said under cover of anonymity. "Work was due to start in 2017 itself. So, going by the time the DPR is being sent to the Centre for approval, it is a million-dollar question whether the project would be complete by 2021 or not. "