Govt prepares policy for metro rail projects

In order to aid state governments in drafting their own feasibility reports for metro rail projects, the central government has prepared a consolidated policy for such projects. The consolidated policy focuses on both public-private partnership and government funding models. The central government would consider the request for funding from the state government for metro rail projects based on the policy. It may be recalled that the central government earlier planned to implement metro rail projects in 34 cities that have one million plus population. The union urban ministry is learnt to be getting lot of requests from state and city administrations for funding their proposed metro rail projects. It is learnt that, most of the cities are in UP, Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat and Punjab.The ministry however has supported the government-funded model as success rate of PPP model is yet to be ascertained. The policy stated that PPP is supported where the corridor is mostly elevated and ridership quite high. Globally only 18 per cent of metro rail projects have been taken up under PPP model and that PPP experience in India is limited and to be observed for some more time before any conclusion can be drawn, the MoUD prefers government funding with equity participation by the government of India, the policy noted. The ministry is working on the proposals forwarded by cities like Ludhiana, Pune, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Surat to name a few.