Cabinet approves new metro rail policy to expand networks across cities

The government on Wednesday approved a new metro rail policy for expanding the metro network across various cities in the country, officials said.

The new policy was approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The metro policy will talk about standardising norms and developing a procurement mechanism for implementation of the projects. It will also talk about funding and financing, officials said.

At present, metro projects with a total length of more than 350 km are operational in eight cities - Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Gurugram.

Metro projects are also under way in Hyderabad, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Pune and Lucknow.