Metro Rail a Gimmick or a Reality?

Metro Rail a Gimmick or a Reality?

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: On February 29, 2016, the then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi laid the foundation stone a metro railway project at Khanapara in Guwahati spending around Rs 70 lakh. Under thickly grown plants and creepers, the foundation stone is not visible now. The State government at that time had to race against the clock to lay the foundation stone for a desired political gimmick in the run-up to the Assembly elections. So much so that, the then government even entrusted RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) to prepare the DPR (detailed project report) of the project spending crores of rupees. What was missed in the indecent haste was an ‘in-depth study on the feasibility’ of the project. After coming to power, the BJP-led government at Dispur has reviewed the project in entirety, and is now set to do everything afresh.

At that time the project had an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore. The metro rail project, according to the previous government, had four-line (corridors) covering a distance of 61-km in Guwahati. However, the alignment of the four corridors, according to sources, was done without going for any in-depth study or survey as ‘time was the essence’ for the then government in the run-up to the Assembly elections. The outcome is not far to seek – now everything done by the previous government concerning the project has to be done afresh.

Now the BJP-led government at Dispur is set to engage RITES for a fresh survey of the project. This government has aligned the metro rail corridors afresh, discarding the alignment done by the Congress government.

In May, 2017 State Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma dropped a hint on the floor of the State Assembly that the implementation of the proposed metro rail was nowhere near. The minister was on record informing the House that the State government’s share in the project was Rs 4,000 crore, an amount which Dispur was not in a position to afford to at that time.

According to GMDA (Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority) sources, when a metro rail project is implemented, besides a number of preliminary works a study on traffic movement with approval from the Central government is mandatory. However, the previous government had to skip a number of such mandatory measures while laying the foundation stone of the project in haste. Even, according to sources, which stretches of the four corridors would remain underground and which would remain over ground were not specified by the last Congress government.

This is just an example. A number of decisions taken by the last Congress government – formation of South Kamrup and East Kamrup districts, besides a number of sub-divisions – had to be kept in abeyance by the BJP-led government on the ground that the decisions had not been taken with in-depth studies.

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