Haryana CM Saini, Manohar Lal perform Bhoomi Pujan for Gurugram metro corridor

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Friday performed the Bhoomi Pujan for the much-awaited 28.5-km metro corridor that will link Millennium City Centre metro station on DMRC’s Yellow Line with the Rapid Metro at Cyber City, passing through Old Gurugram.

The ₹5,452.72-crore project will be executed in two phases – Phase 1 is of 15.5 km, and Phase 2 comprises 13 km – by the Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL), a joint venture of the Centre and Haryana government. GMRL Managing Director Chander Shekhar Khare said civil work for Phase 2 will commence soon after Phase 1.

This expansion comes nearly 15 years after the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s (DMRC) Yellow Line was extended to Gurugram in June 2010 and over a decade after the 12-km Rapid Metro began operations in November 2013.

The elevated corridor will have 27 metro stations, connecting key hubs such as Subhash Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Udyog Vihar (Phases 4, 5, 6), Basai Village, Sector 5, Sector 3, Palam Vihar Extension, and Palam Vihar, before merging with the Rapid Metro. A 1.85-km spur from Basai Village to Dwarka Expressway will include a station at Sector 101, while a metro depot will be built at Hero Honda Chowk.

Addressing a public meeting at Gurugram University Campus, CM Saini said he was “fulfilling a long-awaited dream” along with the Union Minister, and the project would ease traffic congestion, reduce pollution, save travel time, and create jobs. He added that further extensions, including Rejangla Chowk-Dwarka Sector 21, Sector 56-Pachgaon, and the NaMo Metro corridors (Delhi-Karnal, Delhi-Neemrana, Gurugram-Noida via Faridabad), were also planned.

Metro boom

Mr. Lal highlighted that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, metro services have expanded rapidly. He said metro services were available for over 248 km in five cities in 2014, but today the network has grown to 1,066 km across 24 cities, with another 970 km in the pipeline.

Once complete, India will emerge as the world’s number one country in metro service availability, said the Minister. Mr. Lal announced that the Urban Ministry will provide 10,000 buses nationwide at concessional rates, including 450 for Haryana and 100 dedicated to Gurugram. An app-based system will link buses to metro stations, ensure safety, and enable fare payments via metro cards, eliminating parking issues, he said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Planning and Statistics and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh demanded last month that the Union Cabinet approve the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) route from Delhi-Gurugram-Rewari to Shahjahanpur in Rajasthan. In a letter to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal, Mr. Singh pointed out that the construction for the Delhi-Meerut RRTS was in the final stage of completion, though both projects were announced at the same time. Seeking the acceleration of the project work, Mr. Singh emphasised that Gurugram held a high position in Goods and Services Tax and Income Tax collection and contributed around 60% revenue to the State treasury.