Centre approves DPR worth Rs 17,800 crores for Patna Metro Rail project

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): Finally, the BJP-led Central Government has approved the detailed project report (DPR) of Patna Metro Rail project submitted by the Bihar Government in last month. This information is confirmed by Bihar Govt.'s Urban development and housing department minister Suresh Sharma on Tuesday. While interacting with the media in a programme, he said that he has been informed by the officials of Central Government that the Centre has cleared the proposal and sent the file back to the state government.

He further said that after going through the details the state government will submit a proposal to the Central Government in which the state government will provide information about funds it will invest from its kitty for this project. Sanction for the state’s share will be procured through cabinet approval. He shared his views that this process will be completed in November itself so that the central approval about financial details can be procured at the earliest and the project formally launched before year-end.

According to the revised detailed project report (DPR), this ambitious project of the Bihar Government has a cost component of a little over Rs 17,800 crore out of which the Central Government and the state government had to bear 20 percent each of the project cost and the remaining 60 percent fund has to be mobilized through soft loan. from the foreign financial institutions. The Patna Metro Rail project will cover a total length of 33.1 km having two corridors namely East-West corridor and North-South corridor.

While the East-West corridor would start from Danapur Area to Patna Railway Station (via Dak Bungalow Square), and the North-South corridor would start from the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) to Gandhi Maidan (via Rajendra Nagar and Ashok Rajpath). The project completion timeline would be five years from the date of commencement of the physical work on the ground. In other words, if work started at the beginning of the year 2019 then it will be completed by 2023.

According to sources, the Patna Metro Rail project will not face any financial hurdles as the several international funding agencies have already shown interest to fund the project before the state government. Sources said that after getting approved files from the Centre, the state government will soon start the process to procure the loan from the financial institutions. The state government has also initiated the process of setting up Patna Metro Rail Corporation Limited as a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which will be responsible for executing the project and the urban development and housing department principal secretary will be its ex-officio chairman.

The state government already framed the organization structure of the board of directors for the Patna Metro Rail Corporation (PMRC). The directors would be nominated by the urban development, finance, transport, energy, and road construction departments.