Metros For 15 More Cities In Near Future, 664 Km Of Network In The Works: Union Minister Hardeep Puri

Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Hardeep Singh Puri has said that while 515 km of metro line is already operational in various cities of India, work on more than 664 km of metro rail projects in 15 cities are in various phases of implementation.

The minister was interacting with the members of the consultative committee attached to the MoHUA on Monday (29 October) and informed them about the various initiatives of the ministry, Economic Times has reported.

Puri, while providing details of the metro rail projects, informed the members that several new cities are aspiring for metro rail systems.

The minister said that advise has been given to the state governments and the union territories to prepare and submit the detailed project report (DPR) in line with the provisions in the Metro Rail Policy 2017.

A statement released by the ministry said, “Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs has stated that more than 664 kms of metro rail projects in 15 cities are presently under various stages of implementation, while more than 515 kms of metro line is already operational in India.”

Puri also informed the members about the funds that the ministry has released to various metro rail projects. The Ministry released Rs 9,286.09 crore in 2015-16, Rs 15,298.61 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 7,481.28 crore in 2018-19 (up to 30 September, 2018).

The minister said that in order to disseminate up-to-date and best urban transport practices information to the cities and bring together the technology and service providers, officials, practitioners and policy makers in urban transport from India and abroad, the eleventh Urban Mobility India (UMI) conference is planned from 2-4 November at Nagpur with the theme of “Green Mobility”.