Urban development and housing minister Maheshwar Hazari met his counterpart at the Centre, Venkaiah Naidu, on Tuesday for the central government's urgent nod to the Patna Metro project.

"After a month of seeking appointment with the central minister, I met Naidu this morning requesting him to give in-principle consent for the project which is already delayed," Hazari told The Telegraph over phone from New Delhi on Tuesday. "I put forward the Patna Metro case before the Union minister asking him to approve the project so that work on it can start this year at any cost."

The Patna Metro rail project is hanging for the past six years since work started with the approval from the then Planning Commission of India in 2011. Other Metro projects such as in Lucknow, which was conceived almost at the same time as Patna's, has conducted its trial run while Patna is waiting for its clearance since March 2016.

Hazari in his meeting with Naidu told the Union urban development and housing minister that consent to the Nagpur and Lucknow Metro projects were given within a span of a few days but Bihar's project has not got the green light even after a lapse of 11 months since all relevant documents were submitted to the central government. Naidu told Hazari it was a procedural delay, and had a talk on the phone with Mukund Kumar Sinha, the officer on special duty (urban transport) at the Centre on the reasons for the delay and the possible resolution.

"I fail to understand what politics is going on about the project," Hazari said. "Though the intentions of the central minister appear to be well, it's befuddling to understand the officials' mind.

"We have submitted all the relevant papers to the Centre, and what we want now is only its in-principle consent, not even money. We will arrange the money ourselves."

Initially, it was decided the Bihar government will invest Rs 6,544 crore, take an equity loan of Rs 7,812 crore from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the Centre would provide the remaining amount needed for the project. Now that the Metro project is delayed, Bihar is ready to bear the entire cost of the Metro rail work with minister Hazari blaming the Union government of meting out step-motherly treatment to the state.

To expedite the Centre's approval, the Bihar government on Tuesday deputed two officials to be in regular touch with the Union ministry concerned.

"I have deputed two officers from my department, who will interact with officials of the Union ministry here (Delhi) so that we get nod for the project as soon as possible," Hazari said.

Patna was supposed to be the seventh city to have a metro after Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur and Chennai. But now, the Lucknow and Nagpur Metros are ahead of Patna. The Lucknow project had its trial run last year and it's scheduled to launch in March 2017; the Nagpur Metro is also under construction and is supposed to be ready in 2017.

If Bihar gets the Centre's nod this year, Patna Metro can be complete by 2021 at an estimated cost of Rs 16,960 crore. The proposed Metro network will have 25 stations and run from the Danapur Cantonment to the proposed inter-state bus terminal on the Patna-Gaya road.