NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro was allocated Rs 414.70 crore in the Union Budget, up from Rs 50 crore in the last fiscal.Finance Minister Nirmala Stharaman shared the details while presenting the Budget on Friday.
The Delhi Metro’s current operational span is 342 km with 250 stations.On March 8, the 6.6-km Noida City Centre-Noida Electronic City section — an extension of the Delhi Metro’s Blue Line — was made
operational.
In February after the presentation of the Interim Budget 2019-20, sources in the DMRC had said that grant was given for work on Noida and Ghaziabad sections of the network. Recently, the Centre had asked the Delhi government to end the tussle over Delhi Metro’s Phase IV, which has led to the project being further delayed, as its conditions cannot be accepted.
Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra had written to Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev, seeking a review of the decision to stop the work and lift the embargo at the earliest in public interest. The Centre and the AAP government are already at loggerheads over free Metro rides for women.
On Friday, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs was allocated Rs 17,713.93 crore for executing metro projects across the country, which was Rs 14,864.60 crore in the revised Union Budget of the previous fiscal. The government has set aside Rs 19,152 crore for Mass Rapid Transit System as against the previous Budget’s allocation of Rs 15,600 crore.
(Agency inputs)