Metro projects get Rs 17,810 cr in this year’s Budget

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Government has set aside more than Rs.17,810 crore in the Budget for 2017-18 for metro projects all over the country, which is an increase of around 14% compared to the allocation last year. 

While presenting the annual budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that a new policy for metro rail will have innovative financing methods. 

However, compared to last year, the Union budget did not give any break-up for individual projects such as those being managed by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). 

The only allocation mentioned separately was of about Rs.150 crore that is being granted to DMRC for its expansion to NCR areas such as Bahadurgarh, Ghaziabad and Noida, which is almost double compared to previous year's Rs.87.4 crore. 

In this year’s budget, the loan amount given by external agencies such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been estimated at Rs.13,644 crore, compared to Rs.12,470.75 crore last year. 

While Phase III project of DMRC costing Rs.42,000 crore is nearing its completion and is expected to launch this year, the Delhi government has recently cleared the Phase IV and is awaiting the clearance of Central government. 

The mega project, in which 72 new stations will be constructed, will cost more than Rs.50,000 crore that is to be borne by the state as well as Centre equally.