Patna: After the capital city of Patna, the state government has decided to develop metro rail networks in four other cities of Bihar including Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur.
The state cabinet at its meeting chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar has given its consent to the urban development and housing department’s (UDHD) proposal to run metro rail services in four other towns in coming years.
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As per the proposal, the state government and the Central will share about 20% cost each of the project, while the rest 60% cost will be arranged through borrowings from financial institutions. The process may, however, take years, as it would require conducting pre-feasibility survey, preparation of detailed project report (DPR), arranging loan amount to raising necessary infrastructure.
A senior officer of the UDHD said it is a long-drawn process and may take a not less than decade to translate the project in to a reality. “The project is at a very nascent stage and it required clearing different stages to reach the DPR stage. For example, the planning commission of India had cleared the Patna metro rail project in 2011, but it took another five years (2016) to get the DPR approved by the state cabinet,” said the officer.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the 1st phase of the Patna metro rail project in 2019 and barely 20-30% of the civil work could be done so far. Patna metro rail project is likely to cost ₹13366 crore, a part of which will be funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as long-term loan. The first phase of Patna metro rail project is likely to commence operation in march 2018.
