CHANDIGARH: Questioning the current traffic situation in and around Chandigarh, senior Congress leader and MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday asked what it could look like by 2036.
He said the proposed Mass Rapid Transport Project (MRTS) for Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and New Chandigarh is not just a connectivity initiative, but one that could unlock the region’s economic potential and act as a mercantile multiplier, driving growth across the ‘quad cities’.
“The fear that Chandigarh would be swamped by people from across the region if a Metro Project is built is schizophrenic for the lack of a better word,” Manish Tewari wrote in a post on X.
“In fact the real economic growth is on the periphery of Chandigarh today and not in Chandigarh unfortunately and therefore people from Chandigarh in the next 5 years will travel out to work in the adjoining areas and not visa-versa,” he added.
He further said that with the country’s western border closed, the ‘quad city’ region has limited agriculture, heavy industry or even a strong services sector. In this context, he argued that the metro project could transform the four cities into a research hub similar to the Research Triangle - covering Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill - emerging as a centre for frontier technologies driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
He further wrote, “If the states of Punjab & Haryana claim Chandigarh as their capital then both these states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh should pony up to integrate these four Quad Cities into a seamless Metropolitan area by putting their money where there mouth is - that is funding and bringing to fruition THE METRO PROJECT- that RITES has twice held to be feasible”.