Metros and light rail First section of Jaipur met
The Rs 97.3bn ($US 1.5bn) project to build a 35km metro in the Rajasthani capital Jaipur is not going according to plan, reports Raghav Thakur. An initial burst of rapid activity has been followed by a series of policy changes.
fate of six firms that have been short- listed for Phase IB?
In November 2010, the Congress Party-led Rajasthan government launched metro construction work without obtaining formal and written approval from the national Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission. This undue haste has resulted in an inordinate delay in securing 20% funding from the central government amounting to Rs 6.3bn against the total Phase I cost of Rs 31.9bn.
“Issues have now been sorted out, as the Public Investment Board and the new Group of Ministers have sanctioned release of central government’s share,” Goel says. But the central government’s green signal has come with several
Jaipur Schoolchildren test out one of the new metro trains. T
HE chairman and managing director of Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation (JMRCL), Mr Nihal Chand Goel, takes justifiable pride for having executed India’s fastest metro project. The 9.7km line from Man Sarover to Chand Pole under Phase-IA was completed in just 21 months without time or cost overruns. Late last month the first six of 10
four-car trains ordered from BEML in Bangalore arrived in Jaipur. The line is scheduled to become operational by March.
Continental Engineering, Taiwan, has been awarded a Rs 31.5bn contract to construct Phase IB, a 2.4km underground section from Chand Pole to Badi Chopar. The civil works should be completed by November 2016. So, could things not be better?
As it turns out, substantive issues are emerging. For one, the already low
Jaipur metro Phase
Route 32
daily ridership figures forecasts of 20,000 in 2014 rising to 29,000 in 2021 are expected to come down further. For example, the ridership figures projected for Phase I of the Delhi metro were projected at 330,000, while actual ridership for Phases I and II together is 260,000. Also, Jaipur is barely reaching the 8% financial internal rate of return (FIRR) stipulated by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), which is responsible for metro projects. More problematic is that after taking the engineering procurement contract route for Phase IA, Jaipur has decided to jump horses mid-way by deciding to follow the public-private partnership (PPP) or build, operate, transfer (BOT) route for Phases IB and II. What can the state government do to raise additional resources and make the project viable? What kind of sweeteners can be offered to the concessionaires? What will be the
Total Underground Elevated Stations Cost length
I Badi Chopar - Man Sarover 12km 2.8km 9.2km II Ambabadi - Sitapura
23km 11 Rs 31.5bn 5km 18km 20 Rs 65.8bn IRJ Sitapura Industrial Area IRJ January 2014 Ambabadi Main station Ram Nagar
Shyam Nagar
Man Sarover Depot Metro
Being built Planned
Indian Railways Existing lines
0 km 2 N
Gopal Pura
Vivek Vihar
Chand Pole
Badi Chopar Sindhi Camp SMS Hospital
S Mansingh Stadium
Tonk Phathak
Laxmi Nagar Airport
Haldi Ghati Gate
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