By IANS,
Gurgaon (Haryana): The Gurgaon Metro rail, the country’s first Metro rail project to be built and operated by a private company, will be operational by the middle of 2012, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Tuesday.
“This 6.1-kilometre Gurgaon Metro rail will be operational by mid-2012. It would join Gurgaon with New Delhi through Delhi-Gurgaon Metro link which would start in 2010,” Hooda announced at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the project.
“Gurgaon Metro rail would be a boon for the people of Gurgaon. Six stations would be established on its stretch to ensure that a station falls at minimum reachable distance from residences as well as from offices of the commuters,” he added.
This would be the first Metro system in the country to be built and operated privately.
“We have urged the central government to extend the Metro rail project up to other parts of state and also impressed upon it the need to make the states, where the Metro reaches, an equal stake holder and share holder in the project,” Hooda said.
Union Urban Development Secretary M. Rama Chandran, who was also present at the ceremony, said all the big towns of Haryana can now start Metro services as an act had been passed for this purpose.
“In seven big cities of the country, including Delhi, 500-km long Metro rail lines are being laid at a cost of about Rs.97,000 crore (Rs.970 billion). The first phase of Delhi Metro has been completed and there are plans to cover the entire NCR (national capital region) area,” he added.