The officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said they are trying to find alternatives to requirement of costly private land that is required for executing the 5.017km Metro extension from Noida’s Sector 62 to Sahibabad in Ghaziabad.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Monday submitted the revised detailed project report (DPR) for the project to GDA with a cost escalation of about ₹356 crore.
The authority last month had asked the DMRC to revise the previous DPR after the first one ran into funding issues at the state level, said GDA sources. The first DPR had estimated the project cost at ₹1,517 crore, and the revised estimated cost in the new DPR stands at ₹1,873.31 crore.
GDA officials said they will soon send the revised DPR to the state government and seek its intervention on funding besides government land for the project.
The revised DPR says 20% of the cost will be borne by the Union government and the remaining by Uttar Pradesh (UP) government.
The revised DPR said the proposed link will require 7,690.10 square metres of private land and 19,001.2 square metres of government land.
“The metro link is proposed to pass through Indirapuram and Vasundhara. The DPR says that about 300-400 square metres of land is required for entry/exit of stations and this will require private land. Since the land is costly, we may ask the DMRC to alter the entry/exits at places where there is availability of government land,” said Manvendra Singh, chief engineer, GDA.
The officials said the circle rates of land in Indirapuram range between ₹75,000 and ₹1 lakh per square metre and any acquisition thereof may lead to payment of twice the rate.
The officials also hinted that they may also consider dropping some of the proposed stations to reduce the cost further.
In the revised report, the DMRC has proposed five stations for the 5.017km link — at Vaibhav Khand, near DPS Indirapuram; Shakti Khand, Vasundhara Sector 7, and Sahibabad.
“The government land alongside the route belongs to GDA, UP Awas Vikas, irrigation department and some land may also be required from the Central Industrial Security Force. The state government’s intervention is required here. We have also proposed that the metro link be constructed on the median of the CISF Road in Indirapuram and thereafter the alignment will be elevated to go over the existing Hindon elevated road before entering Vasundhara,” Singh said.
The GDA officials said they are examining the report and also trying to find out the cost of private and government land included in the total cost of ₹1,873.31 crore.
The proposed link will be an extension of Metro’s Blue Line and will terminate at Sahibabad, adjacent to the Sahibabad station of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project, and will create an interchange hub for passengers.