Govt wants Metro to roll up to Baddi

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 18

As the process for finalisation of the Metro project is underway among Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Government of India has sought comments from the Chandigarh Administration on the request of the Himachal Pradesh government to extend the Metro up to the industrial town of Baddi.

Sources said the Government of Himachal Pradesh wrote a letter to the Government of India expressing its desire to extend the Metro up to Baddi.

In the letter, the Additional Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, said that extending Metro up to Baddi would benefit a large number of people of the tricity as they commute every day to this industrial city. Ajay Mittal, Additional Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, confirmed raising the demand before the Government of India. He said Himachal Pradesh was happy to be a partner in the project.

Baddi is an industrial town of Solan district which is a leading industrial centre of Himachal Pradesh. It is a part of an industrial corridor, stretching from Barotiwala to Nalagarh, along the western border of Solan district. Many national and multi-national companies have already set up large plants at Baddi. The town is also emerging as one of the best educational centres of Himachal Pradesh. Many new reputed schools and universities have come up there.

When contacted, Sarbjit Singh, Finance Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, said, “We had conveyed to the Government of India to get the feasibility study done on the proposal of Himachal Pradesh.” He said any decision on the proposal would be taken at the level of the Central Government on the basis of the feasibility study regarding the possible traffic volume, route and other related things.

At present, the Administration is in the process of preparing the revised DPR for the Metro project. In July this year, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to implement the integrated multi-modal mass transport system for the Chandigarh region, comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

As part of the MoU, they had named the special purpose vehicle to execute the project as the Greater Chandigarh Transport Corporation (GCTC). The initial

equity of the GCTC was to be Rs 100 crore, which was to be equally contributed (25 per cent each) by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, the UT, Haryana and Punjab.

The proposed Metro envisages two corridors for the project: the East-West corridor that will extend from the Grain Market in Sector 21, Panchkula, to the Transport Terminus at Mullanpur and the North-South corridor that will run from near the Capitol Complex in Sector 1 to Gurdwara Shaheedan in Mohali.