DEHRADUN: Known for its lush green mango and litchi orchards, Dehradun is all set to get its own metro rail, Metro Neo, to ease traffic load in the capital city and promote eco-friendly public transportation.
The metro line will cover a total distance of 22.42 kilometres with 25 elevated stations. There will be two corridors – North-South corridor from Inter-State Bus Terminal to Gandhi Park and East West corridor from Forest Research Institute (FRI) to Raipur.
The ISBT-Gandhi Park corridor will pass through important areas such as Sewla Kalan, ITI, Chamanpuri, Patthri Bagh, Railway Station, Court and Ghantaghar. The 8.52 kms corridor will have a total of 10 stations, all elevated. Reversing loops will be provided at both the terminal stations, as per officials.
The 13.90-km FRI-Raipur corridor will have 15 stations and will pass through areas like Ballupur Chowk, IMA Blood Bank, Doon School, Malhotra Bazar, and Ghantaghar.
The alignment runs through FRI’s forest and residential areas before aligning on the East Canal Road. Two stations – CCMC and Araghar Chowk – are proposed on the East Canal Road.
It will further continue to Jeeavanwala, Dalanwala road and two stations – Nehru Colony and Rispana Pul (Vidhan Sabha) are proposed. Stations proposed on Raipur Road include Upper Badrish Colony, Upper Nathanpur, Ordnance factory and Hathi Khana Chowk with terminal station being Raipur.
The North West corridor will also be elevated and reversing loops will be provided at both the terminal stations.
The project has already been approved by the Uttarakhand goverment in February this year, said officials from Uttarakhand Metro Rail Corporation (UKMRC).
It will have articulated/bi-articulated/standard rubber tyre electric coaches with overhead traction, guided by central/side rail guided system and will run on a dedicated right of way on an entirely elevated corridor, they further said.
Metro Neo coaches will have a length of 12 meters and 25 meters respectively for single coaches and bi-articulated coaches.
The carrying capacity of the 12 meter coach will be 90 passengers and 225 passengers in 25 meter coach.
Speaking to The New Indian, UKMRC managing director Jitendra Tyagi said, “The DPR (detailed project report) has been sanctioned by government of Uttarakhand on February 17. It has been forwarded to the Central government for further approvals. The project aims to ease traffic congestion and promote eco-friendly transportation.”
The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1852.74 crore which will have estimated daily ridership of 295492 in 2051.
Estimated daily ridership of the project for year 2021 was 165425.
Interestingly, Uttarakhand Cabinet on Wednesday approved a project in which residential buildings will be constructed within 100-200 meters of the proposed metro stations in Dehradun and Haridwar.
State government officials said that the project is to encourage people to shift closer to proposed metro stations to encourage them to use eco-friendly public transport instead of their private vehicles.