GDA gets Rs 600 crore for metro, Hindon elevated road projects

The officials of the Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) said they have got nearly Rs 600 crore sanctioned during the infrastructure development funds’ (IDF) meeting held on Thursday in Meerut. The meeting was chaired by divisional commissioner, Meerut, and attended by senior authority officials.

The officials said of the sanctioned Rs 600 crore, a major portion will be allocated for the 9.41km metro link from Dilshad Garden to New Bus Stand and the 10.3km Hindon elevated road that is under construction from UP Gate to Raj Nagar Extension.

“We got all the proposed funds sanctioned during the infrastructure funds’ meeting. A total of Rs 600 crore was sanctioned for several old and new projects, including the metro link and the Hindon elevated road project. Nearly Rs 400 crore was sanctioned for old projects while Rs 200 crore was sanctioned for new projects,” said Vijay Kumar Yadav, vice-chairman, GDA.

As per the proposals placed for approval during the meeting, the GDA had sought nearly Rs 125 crore for the metro project. As part of its share of Rs 2,210 crore metro project, the authority is to bear nearly Rs 695.8 crore. Earlier, the authority has already received a sanction of Rs 570 crore from the IDF.

According to GDA records, the metro project is 35% complete on the elevated section from Dilshad Garden to New Bus Stand in Ghaziabad. The metro link is slated to have eight stations — at Shaheed Nagar, Raj Bagh, Rajendra Nagar, Shyam Park, Mohan Nagar, Arthala, river Hindon and New Bus Stand.

Officials said with Thursday’s approval from IDF, the authority has completed the funds arrangements for its Rs 695.8 crore share towards the project.

State agencies, including GDA, are to share a total of Rs 1,479.6 crore as UP’s share towards the metro project. After GDA coughs up its share of Rs 695.8 crore, the remaining Rs 783.8 crore is to be shared by the other agencies in a specified proportion.

Most of the other agencies are yet to pay their share in the metro project. The fund’s sharing issue is under discussion at the state government level. The central government will share about 20% of the cost amounting to Rs 402.4 crore.

For the 9.41-km project, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the authority and the DMRC in June 2014. The DMRC had also started the work which is now in advanced stages and is expected to be ready by June 2017.

For the other major project, the 10.3km Hindon elevated road, which is also a priority project of the UP government, a proposal of nearly Rs 123 crore was placed before the IDF meeting.

The total project cost is around Rs 1,147 crore and GDA has already got a sanction of Rs 400 crore loan from the NCR Planning Board.