Just a year-and-half after the foundation stone was laid with great fanfare by former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the Bhubaneswar Metro Rail project has been grounded. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the turnkey consultant for Odisha’s largest infrastructure project, cancelled project-related contracts awarded to two major firms last week, signalling the state government’s intention of revisiting the whole plan. BJD chief Patnaik described the cancellation as a great betrayal of the people of the state. In its pushback, the BJP government made it clear that the ₹6,255-crore project was not feasible in its original form and a more sustainable plan is being devised. The urban rail project, announced in April 2023 by Patnaik, envisaged a 26-km elevated corridor in the first phase connecting Bhubaneswar airport and Trisulia, a point where the expanding state capital merges with neighbouring Cuttack. With a 2027 deadline, the previous government had prepared a detailed project report (DPR), formed the state-owned Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Corporation in August 2023, and awarded contracts.
The project had received mixed reactions back when it was declared, too, over the cost-benefit analysis, length of the network and per-hour passenger carrying capacity. The BJD clearly had timed and designed the entirely state-funded project with the 2024 elections in mind. Work had started, but it was on a slow track. However, after the BJP came to power last June, it wanted to tweak the project and the DPR was put on hold in March amid talks about taking the project underground. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, however, put it back on track by constituting a ministerial committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo to look at alternative models for the project. A mass rapid transit system will not only offer improved mobility options, but would also bring tremendous socio-economic and environmental positives. Since plans are afoot to extend the network well into Cuttack city and the project will have to start afresh, the government must ensure that it does not fall victim to partisan politics, because continuity in governance must be maintained. After all, the need for an urban rapid transit system for the greater capital region of Bhubaneswar is beyond dispute.