This Article is From Nov 12, 2010

Jaipur: Metro project to begin on Saturday

Jaipur: After two years of flip-flops and uncertainty, Jaipur's Metro train project is finally ready to hit the tracks. On Saturday, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the nodal agency for the venture, would start work for building the stations and railway lines for the first phase of the project.Initial work would start near the Ajmer Pulia, where the DMRC would drill the earth for creating the foundation for the track that would connect Mansarovar to Chandpol.

Simultaneously, the DMRC is going to invite bids for four stations on this route to be developed at Mansarovar, Atish Market, Vivek Vihar and Ram Nagar.

"We will lay down vertical columns as the support-base for the Metro track," said Lalit Meghnani, in-charge of the Jaipur Metro project. He said 30 such columns -- one every day -- would be built on the 4.5 km route between Ajmer Pulia and Jharkhand Mahadev temple near Vaishali Nagar over the next 30 days.

Jaipur will be first city in the country to have an elevated track for the Metro and the Bus Rapid Transport System. While the Metro would run on the elevated track, the two tracks below it would be reserved for the normal city traffic. The three-tier stretch between Ajmer Pulia and Jharkhand Mahadev alone would cost `215 crore. The entire 9.2km-long Metro for the first phase will cost `1,250 crore.

While, the civil work is expected to create traffic hurdles, the DMRC has made special arrangements for drilling on Ajmer road to minimise traffic woes for the commuters. The drilling would take place in the median of the roads and the machines will cover two lanes one each on both sides of the road out of six lanes of Ajmer road, which meant that traffic movement, would not be affected much.

"We are going to have a meeting with traffic police and Jaipur development authority to sort out problem of possible traffic congestion. If needed traffic may be diverted at some junctions and alternative routes would be decided," Meghnani said.

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