Phase-I of the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro, for which construction work began five years ago, may be completed by 2022-23.

The project cost has jumped to Rs 12,700 crore, an escalation of Rs 2,000 crore. Phase-I of the project will get extended to Q3/FY23. At present, 55 percent of the work has been completed.

The project being undertaken by the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) is a 50-50 joint venture (JV) between the Gujarat government and the government of India.

The cost overrun in the project, launched in 2015 has happened due to various factors including the lockdown in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.

While Rs 600 crore had to be given to the Indian Railways for using their land in the city to build Metro infrastructure, the cost of relief and rehabilitation also rose from the earlier Rs 125 crore to over Rs 325 crore after the state government allowed higher quantum of compensation to be given to all those affected by the project.

The Ahmedabad Metro project was on the drawing board since 2005 and initially planned to connect Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar cities in Phase-I under Metrolink Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA).

In Phase-I, Ahmedabad will be connected by two corridors from East to West and North to South, criss-crossing near Income Tax Circle. In Phase-II, Ahmedabad will be connected to Gandhinagar and GIFT City.

GMRC had planned to raise the speed of the train to 80 km per hour (kmph) from the current 25 km per hour.

As per the detailed project report (DPR) prepared by GMRC, the 40 km of  Phase-I was expected to cost Rs 10,773 crore and to be completed by 2018, carrying over 4.5 lakh passengers daily. The Japan International Cooperating Agency (JICA) will give Rs 6,066 crore loan for Phase-I.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first 6.5 km stretch of the network on the East-West corridor in March 2019 before the Lok Sabha elections. However, the second six km stretch will be commissioned sometime in 2021.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) flew in the first batch of 26 workers from Odisha to complete the underground section of the project. The company plans to fly in 100-odd workers who left due to the pandemic

GMRC is currently procuring 32 set of trains at a cost of Rs 1,025 crore from Hyundai Rotem, which is in the process of manufacturing and shipping them to Gujarat from its manufacturing facility in South Korea. So far 28 sets of trains have reached Ahmedabad.

Work on Phase-II of the Ahmedabad Metro project at a cost of Rs 6,500 crore, is yet to begin.