Chandigarh's Tricity Metro Receives Green Signal, Construction To Start Soon: Here’s All About It

The Tricity Metro has received a green signal, and the development work will soon start in Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula, after a long tussle of 14 years.

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The capital city of Haryana and Punjab is ready to get a metro transit system, touted as the Tricity Metro. A meeting was recently called for the Chandigarh administration for the proposed changes, which were suggested in the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) by Haryana and Punjab governments. 14 years after it was proposed, Tricity’s metro project has received a green signal. Also, the metro development work will begin in phases in three cities. Chandigarh city will get a 14.5-kilometre-long metro line in the first phase. Mohali and Panchkula will have 25.5 km and 3.5 km long tracks in Phase 1. In the next phase, an expansion of 4.5 km is lined-up for Panchkula and 5.5 km of expansion will take place in Chandigarh.

Tricity Metro: Timeline

Talking of the timeline of the Chandigarh Metro project, it was proposed in the year 2009, following which a DPR costing Rs 1.5 Crore was made by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. In the year 2012, final touches were made to the DPR, and only in 2015, a revised estimate of Rs 13,600 crore was submitted as the total cost of development by DMRC. The year 2017 proved fatal, as the Union Home Ministry sacked the project, calling it financially infeasible. Now as traffic rose in the city, a request was again submitted for metro rail in Tricity. RITES conducted the survey for the same.

Tricity Metro: Stations

Well, this year, both the states approved of the same. Also, suggestions were given to add a few more stations to the route, namely PGIMER, Secretariat, Vidhan Sabha, Pinjore, Kalka, and Punjab and Haryana High Court. Also, the metro will cover important places like the Airport, Fountain Chowk, ISBT Panchkula, Chandigarh Railway Station, Tribune Chowk, JLPL Industrial Area, Grain Market Chowk and more.

Tricity Metro: Need Of The Hour

The adoption of the Tricity metro will also help in reducing the load on the roads. As revealed by the UT’s traffic police, there are more than 8 per cent more vehicles registered in the city than its population. Thus, metro rail is expected to turn out as a saving grace.