Bhopal, 9 Mar : The dream of Metro-Rail is coming true with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation carrying out formally pre-feasibility survey in the Capital on Tuesday. DMRC Executive Director (Civil) Shri S.D. Sharma and ADGM (Direction) Dr. D Mukhopadhyaya met Shri Babulal Gaur Minister of Urban Administration and Development on Wednesday and held talks with him in detail in this respect. These officials will also go to Indore in a couple of days for pre-feasibility survey.
A two-member team of DMRC told Shri Gaur that they had visited 24 km BRTS corridor including residential areas of Kolar and BHEL on Tuesday, March 8. They informed the Minister that pre-feasibility survey report would be conducted keeping the present populated area and burgeoning population in coming 20 years in the city in mind. The officials said that pre-feasibility survey would be completed till July but Detailed Project Report (DPR) could be handed over to the State Government till October 2011.Urban Administration and Development Minister Shri Gaur asked the officials to explore the possibility of running a mono rail in the peripheral area of Upper Lake. The officials of the team were of the view that there is scope of a few bogie metro train in Capital. The additional bogies of metro will be shunted as per increase in railway traffic.
As per primary survey, DMRC team members said that there could be two metro corridors in the capital. First corridor including Berasia road, Bus Stand, Railway Station, Nishatpura, Bairagarh, Habibganj and Kolar Road while BHEL area like AIIMS, Saket Nagar could be included in the second corridor. At the meeting, Mayor Smt. Krishna Gaur suggested to include Mandideep area in the metro corridor so as to reduce commuting traffic between Bhopal and Mandideep. At preliminary stage, the distance of metro corridor will be 40 km. There may be some changes after pre-feasibility survey report that will suggest as to how many routes are under the earth and over the earth. On the ground level, a total of Rs 175 crore is spent at railway track per 1 km while underground railway costs in multifold. Urban Administration and Development Department Principal Secretary Shri S.P.S Parihar, Nagar Nigam Commissioner Shri Manish Singh were also present at the meeting.