Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation reconstituted as UP Metro Rail Corp

The restructured entity to implement all metro rail projects in UP

Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) has now been reconstituted as Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (UPMRCL) for implementing all future metro rail projects in various cities of Uttar Pradesh.

LMRC Board of Directors meeting chaired by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs secretary Durga Shanker Mishra approved the reconstitution of LMRC as a single Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) named UPMRCL. A proposal in this regard had already been cleared by the Yogi Adityanath government.

The Board also endorsed the revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) of proposed East-West Corridor of Lucknow Metro project tabled by LMRC managing director Kumar Keshav at its 32nd meeting in Chennai on Wednesday. Now, the proposal would be submitted to the UP government and the Centre for approval.

Lucknow Metro is scheduled to commission the entire 23 km Phase 1A project from Lucknow airport to Munshipulia Metro Station by April 2019. A section of the corridor is already operational.

Similar metro projects have been proposed in other towns, including Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Varanasi, Allahabad and Gorakhpur in the future. On 17 January 2018, the Adityanath cabinet had approved three proposed metro rail projects in Agra, Kanpur and Meerut at an investment of almost Rs 470 billion. The required funds would be raised through share equity, debt and borrowings from financial institutions.

The Agra, Kanpur and Meerut metro rail projects would span investment of Rs 139.36 billion, Rs 183.42 billion and Rs 148.90 billion respectively, totalling over Rs 471 billion. The three metro services are projected to be operational by 2024.

Of the total investment required, about 57% would be pooled through the raising of long-term credit from bilateral/multilateral financial institutions, which would be facilitated by the Centre. The aggregate borrowings for Agra, Kanpur and Meerut metro projects would stand at Rs 71.31 billion, Rs 93.32 billion and Rs 74.26 billion respectively, which totals almost Rs 239 billion.

LMRC, which operated metro services on the North-South (N-S) Corridor on a 8.5 km priority section, had received a credit line of Rs 35 billion from European Investment Bank (EIB). The N-S Corridor measuring 23 km would entail total investment of Rs 68.80 billion and is likely to be completed by April 2019. Another East-West (E-W) corridor measuring 11 km would cost nearly Rs 54.94 billion. Its DPR is being revisited.

Under the existing metro policy, the Centre and the respective states contribute equal share capital, while the remaining funds are sourced through debt and borrowings.

Metro rail services are also proposed in the VIP constituencies of Varanasi and Gorakhpur. While Varanasi is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gorakhpur is the pocket borough of UP chief minister Adityanath.

Currently, three UP towns have operational metro rail services, including Noida, Lucknow and Ghaziabad.