TN: Centre to formulate new Metro Rail policy, says Venkaiah Naidu

Chennai: The Centre will come out with a new Metro Rail policy for future projects, in line with the government-approved National Policy on Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in Chennai on Sunday.

"The Centre is formulating a new Metro Rail policy to enable innovative finance such as land value capture, transit-oriented development for new Metro Rail projects," he said.

Besides the new metro policy, a National Policy on Transit Oriented Development (TOD) has been formulated and approved by the Union government, he said. This will form a mandatory requirement for all new metro projects in the country, Naidu said.

The minister made the remarks after flagging off the first underground Metro Rail service from Tirumangalam to Nehru Park in Chennai, in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

Naidu said the Centre has standardised critical specifications of rolling stock and signalling systems of Metro Rail for promoting standardisation and indigenisation.

He said the government was also planning to roll out a 'green urban mobility' scheme, aimed at improving overall travel facilities in cities by providing last mile connectivity through non-motorised transport like pedestrian pathways and bicycle sharing.

Referring to the new metro line in Chennai, Naidu said 28 km of a total length of 45 km in Phase 1 of the project will now be operational.

"This project was sanctioned by Government of India at a cost of Rs 14,600 crore. The government has so far released about Rs 11,301 crore for the Chennai Metro project," he said.

With today's launch of the line, around 341 km of metro rail has become operational in New Delhi, the National Capital Region including Gurgaon, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Mumbai.

"Around 529 km are at present under construction in places like Delhi, NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai, Kochi and Ahmedabad," Naidu said.