The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro rail project is getting bigger. The rail project linking the twin cities is now taking shape of a network covering the entire Gujarat. The Gujarat Metro Grid (GMG), as the Rs 1 lakh crore project has been named, is being designed as a multi-modal transport system, including metro, providing connectivity to passengers as well as freight movement. As per the original plan, the metro route was to link industrial areas like Dholera, where a special investment region is coming up, with Gandhinagar via Ahmedabad. In its new avatar, important destinations across Gujarat will be connected through rail. Chief minister Narendra Modi is finetuning the provisions of GMG, which has a 20-year horizon, and is likely to make an announcement soon. The project consists of metro rail, mono rail, light-weight transportation system, servicing urban and municipal areas, especially major cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot. Already, MetroLink Express Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA), a special purpose vehicle floated to execute the metro project, plans to build about 1,000 km of urban rail-based transportation system over the next five to seven years. In a first, the developers of the metro project are mulling to integrate inter-city freight movements. “It is traditionally seen as a passenger service only. But, by carrying freight, we will be able to recover substantial costs,” said an official from chief minister’s office. Besides finances, the project will need to clear regulatory hurdles as railways is a Central subject. “The state government is considering a legislation to enable development of tramways which are essentially urban railways transportation services covering the municipal region in the entire state. Tramways is a state subject,” he said. States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal have similar legislation in place. “However, issues of inter-nodal or inter-region connectivity will remain to be tackled by Indian Railways,” he said.
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