GIFT City In Gujarat To See First Set Of Metro Trains By June 2024

Gujarat's GIFT City may see its first metro train in June 2024, with the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) preparing to conduct trials for Phase-II Ahmedabad metro.

"We are going to conduct a trial run for the priority reach comprising 20-odd km of the Phase-II of Ahmedabad metro in April, which will connect the Narendra Modi stadium at Motera to GIFT City and Sector-1 of Gandhinagar city,” writes businessline, quoting Pushkar Singla, Chief General Manager (Corporate Planning), GMRC.

The second phase of Ahmedabad metro has a 5.42-km-long branch connection to GIFT City lying across the Sabarmati river.

This addition will link GIFT City to both Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, offering convenient transportation for over 20,000 employees of the fintech hub. Presently, their commuting options are limited to state/private buses or private vehicles.

“If we get necessary permission, then commercial metro rail operations to GIFT City and Gandhinagar will begin in June,” said the report.

Phase - II

The 28.25-km second phase is the expansion of the first phase of Ahmedabad metro and has 22 stations.

It begins at Narendra Modi cricket stadium at Motera, where Phase I culminates and runs northward for 22.80 km before terminating at Mahatma Mandir (venue of Vibrant Gujarat summit) in Gandhinagar.

At the Gujarat National Law University metro station, the metroline branches out eastwards to GIFT station, with two stations, namely, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University and GIFT City.

Unlike Phase I that had underground sections, Phase II will have only elevated corridors and has an estimated completion cost of Rs 5,384 crore.

The Union government had approved the Phase 2 project in February 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone on 4 March 2019. The construction work commenced in February 2021 and the entire Phase II is expected to be completed by end of this calendar year.