Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the construction of the Agra Metro Project on 7th December 2020 at 12.00 noon via video conferencing. Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath, and other dignitaries will also attend the event that will be held at 15 Battalion PAC parade ground in Agra.
About Agra Metro Project:
- The Agra Metro project comprises 2 corridors with a total length of 29.4 km and connects major tourist attractions like Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Sikandra with railway stations and bus stands.
- The project will benefit the 26 lakh population of the city of Agra and will also cater to more than 60 lakh tourists who visit Agra every year.
- It will provide an environment-friendly Mass Rapid Transit System to the historic city of Agra.
- The estimated cost of the project will be Rs 8,379.62 cr which will be completed in 5 years.
- Earlier, on 8th March 2019, Prime Minister inaugurated the Agra Metro project along with the commencement of commercial operations of Lucknow Metro on the entire 23 km long North-South corridor from ‘CCS Airport to Munshipulia’.
- On 28 Feb 2019, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved Agra Metro Rail Project having two corridors.
- Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (UPMRC), a 50:50 jointly owned Company of Government of India and Government of Uttar Pradesh has been reconstituted as per the approval of the Government as a single SPV by rechristening it as “Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (UPMRC)” for implementation of Metro Rail projects in various important cities in the State of Uttar Pradesh and has been entrusted with the responsibility of implementation and operation of the rail based Mass Rapid Transit System (Metro) in Kanpur and Agra cities where Metro projects have been recently approved by Government of India.
- The projects shall be financed through equity contribution from Govt. of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Govt. of India (GOI) and a soft loan from International Funding Institutions.
Project Features:
- The two corridors will connect major public nodes, tourist places and city cluster areas of Agra.
- Implementation of Metro Rail System will result in less vehicular traffic and better movement on the roads leading to reduction in congestion, travel time, cost of journey and pollution.
- The Metro Rail System will also promote transit oriented development which will lead to development of more residential and commercial complexes along the corridors.
- The proposed corridors will be having Multimodal Integration with Railway Stations & BRTS Stations and will have feeder network of Bus, Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) and Non Motorized Transport (NMT).
- The Project will have non-fare box revenue from rental & advertisement as well as Value Capture Financing (VCF) through the mechanism of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR).
Source: PIB-Press Release
