Surat: Metro rail project to be launched in 2019

​Surat: In the first half of 2019, the Rs 21,600 crore metro rail project of Surat is expected to be launched and completed in four years, with as many as four elevated stations to be made under public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
It is likely for the revised detailed project report (DPR) of Surat metro rail to be approved by the state authorities in the next few days.

On Thursday, the municipal commissioner M Thennarasan said, “Amendments were made to include private player in the project. The DPR is with finance department of Government of Gujarat. Once it is approved, a decision will be taken whether the project should be undertaken by MEGA (Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad) or a new company needs to be formed.”

It is supposed by the revised detailed project report that four rail stations would be elevated ones, out of the total 38 rail stations to be built on 40 km long two metro corridors. They will be constructed at a cost of Rs 111.88 crore on PPP basis. The elevated stations would be built at Rupali canal and Althan tenement on metro corridor number 1 and aquarium and Athwa Chowpatty stations on corridor number 2. SMC would give nearby commercial plots to developers. Corridor one will start from Sarthana up to Dream City and corridor number 2 from Saroli up to Bhesan. Rs 31.20 crore will be invested in building each of the other 34 rail stations.

The empty spaces on either sides of metro rail will be used for development and income from additional FSI utilized for operations and maintenance of the network under transit oriented policy of central government. Sources said that there will be a generation of Rs 2,738  crores under value capture policy, which will be the result of five cent cess on all new documents registered from 2023 to 2047, and the amount will be utilized for operations and maintenance of the metro rail.