Finally, Jammu and Kashmir will get the gift of Light Metro. Metro Projects Public Investment Board (PIB) will have an important meeting under the leadership of Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Delhi on Thursday, in which approval can be given to run light metro in Srinagar and Jammu city. Light Metro’s Detail Project Report (DPR) in both cities has been submitted.
While laying the foundation stone of the Tawi River Front, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha had said in the meeting to be held on February 17 that there is every possibility of approval of the Light Metro project for the state. Light Metro’s work will soon start if this approval is given.
The DPR prepared by RITES Limited for the Light Metro Project in Srinagar and Jammu was sent to the Central Government. According to this, the project will cost about 10599 crores. Jammu and Poonch MP Jugal Kishore Sharma has also raised the demand to take it to Vijaypur AIIMS in the next phase. The Center has also assured to take it to Vijaypur AIIMS.
Metro service will start from the Bantalab area adjoining the city, which will go to Chinnaur, Roop Nagar, Janipur High Court, Lower Laxmi Nagar, Ambaphala, Secretariat, Raghunath Mandir, Exhibition Ground, University Marg, Panama Chowk, Railway Station, Trikuta Nagar, Narwal, Greater Kailash. This will be the first phase of the metro. In the second phase, the metro will reach Udaywala, Tirath Nagar, Suraj Nagar, Circuit House, Jewel Chowk, Exhibition Ground, Kaluchakk, Cidco Chowk, Badi Brahmana and Badi Brahmana railway stations in the third phase.
Seventeen railway stations will be built in the 17 km metro route of the first phase, six stations will be built in the second phase in the six km route, and in the third phase, five stations will be built between six kilometres. Laying the net for the metro will be entrusted to the Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. The work of the first phase can be completed by 2024.
Srinagar will have a 25 km long track. In addition, the Metrolite corridor will be built from Indira Nagar to HMT station in Srinagar city, and a total of 24 stations have been proposed.
In the Metrolite Rail project, a corridor will be built over the roads, from where there will be a big gift of public transport. In the survey of technical experts and the central team, the cities of Jammu and Srinagar were not found suitable for rail routes through tunnels. Therefore, the state government has prepared the DPR while working on the option of a metrolight rail project. In the Metrolite Rail Project, the rail line will be laid over the roads through elevated corridors. An amount of 7945 crores will be spent on this. It has been told that the 23 km long Metrolight Rail project in Jammu will cost 3593 crores, and the 25 km long track in Srinagar will cost 4352 crores. In the DPR of the metro train project, 4825 crores are to be spent on Jammu Light Metro and 5734 crores on Srinagar Light Metro.
