Delhi Metro phase II costs worked out

To cost Rs 13,338 crore for its extension to Haryana and UP.

The states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana would have to contribute 80 per cent of the cost (for stretches within their jurisdiction) for the recently cleared proposal to extend the Delhi Metro to Noida and Gurgaon in phase II.

The states would spend less than Rs 100 crore per kilometre as cost of construction of the line within the state; lower than the cost of Rs 160 crore in phase I of Delhi Metro.

The reason being that the number of stations in these routes (only five stops) would be much lower than in Delhi (phase I), which was a key reason for the higher cost of construction in phase I.

The cost of the remaining project in phase II (20 per cent) would be financed by the Urban Development ministry, the coaches will be financed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) .

These are the ways by which the expenses would be met, according to the decision of the Group of Ministers (GoM) that had been formed for the metro projects by the Urban Development ministry.

The stretches from UP border to Noida Sector 32 and from Haryana border to Sushant Lok (Gurgaon) are each of seven km. The cost is estimated to be Rs 650 crore and Rs 688 crore respectively. The cost per km therefore would come to Rs 92.8 crore per km for Noida line, while the per km cost for Gurgaon line would be Rs 98.2 crore.

The states have already tied up their funds. "Metro linkage is vital for an upcoming satellite city like Gurgaon, which has already become a commercial hub for Delhi. For getting linked to the metro rail network, we are paying 80 per cent of the project cost, but in no way are we paying extra for it," principal secretary, Town and Country Planning and Urban Estates Department, Haryana government, Shakuntala Jakhu said.

Haryana government had set up a development infrastructure fund two years back for funding all infrastructure projects of the state.

The metro project is being funded through it. This fund gets annual contribution from various state agencies like Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Haryana State Industrial Developmental Corporation (HSDIC).

A Noida authority official said, "The funds are being taken from the amount allocated for this project in the budget of Noida authority." Apart from this, the authority would be selling its commercial land for raising funds for the project, sources said.

Within Delhi, the extension of the Metro by another 120 km would require an investment of Rs 18,500 crore. The project includes extension of the Dwarka-Indraprastha line to the Uttar Pradesh border and the extension Vishwavidyalaya-Central Secretariat line to the Haryana border.

The projects would be financed by a combination of funds from the Delhi government, Central government and loans from Japan Bank of International Cooperation.

However these lines would cost around Rs 160 crore per km as they would have a station every km. If the Haryana government's request for extension of the two lines to Faridabad and Bahadurgarh are also included in phase II, then the total distance could go up to 150 km.

DMRC officials said, their main endeavour in phase II would be to bring down the cost per km to below 100 crore.

DMRC, Director (projects), CBK Rao says, "The cost would be reduced mainly through optimisation of resources on our part. In phase I, lots of funds were spent on consultancy and other operations. Now we are quite experienced ourselves,which will lead to savings in consultancy costs."

The 65 km phase I (comprising three lines) of Delhi Metro was built with a total investment of Rs 10,570 crore. The phase II metro program would also include tracks between Shahdara to Dilshad Garden, Yamuna Bank to Anand Vihar bus terminal and Vishwavidyalaya to Jahangirpuri.

It will also include two stand-alone lines. These would be the underground Central Secretariat-Badarpur line (20 km), and the elevated cum underground 19 km long Airport line (Ajmeri Gate-IGI Airport).

Both the lines were recently cleared by the GoM on April 20, 2007. The project is expected to be completed before October 2010, when Commonwealth Games are scheduled in Delhi.