Uttar Pradesh to get metro rail projects in Varanasi and Gorakhpur

The Yogi Adityanath government in UP has proposed to gift the two towns Mini Metro Rail projects, confirming the New Metro Rail Policy

The camaraderie shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during the inauguration of the Delhi Metro’s Magenta line in Noida will extend to their home turf in Uttar Pradesh.

The twin towns of Varanasi and Gorakhpur — Modi’s parliamentary constituency and Yogi’s traditional pocket — are having their metro rail detailed project report (DPR) being prepared in right earnest.

The Yogi government has proposed to gift the two towns Mini Metro Rail projects, confirming the New Metro Rail Policy.

Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) and RITES are preparing the metro rail DPR for Varanasi and Gorakhpur, and this is expected to be submitted to the State government in the next few weeks.

DPR for Kanpur is also being revised in light of the new provisions mentioned in the new policy, which was approved by the Centre on August 16, 2017. 

A senior LMRC official told that during the first phase of Mini Metro Rail project, the DPR for Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Kanpur are being taken up.

Similar exercise would be undertaken in due course for other major towns as well, including Agra, Meerut, Allahabad, Jhansi, Moradabad etc.

In his recent visit to Lucknow, ‘Metro Man’ E Sreedharan, the principal advisor to Uttar Pradesh for metro rail projects, had said the new policy will try to explore several other transport options, including buses. 

He said Mini Metro Rails were most suitable for tier III towns, such as Varanasi and Gorakhpur, since they were cost effective and economical projects compared to regular or medium sized metros.

“Presently, all operational metro rail projects in India barring Delhi Metro are medium metro projects, since their passenger carriage capacity is low,” he informed.

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

LMRC had launched its commercial metro rail services on September 6, a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Yogi flagged off the maiden commercial run on the ‘priority’ section of 8.5 km stretching from Lucknow Airport to Charbagh Railway Station of North-South (N-S) Corridor. It was built at a cost of about Rs 2,0000 crore.

French multinational Alstom is supplying the coaches of Lucknow Metro. In September 2015, LRMC had collaborated with Alstom to supply metro cars for train sets.