Punjab and Haryana have suggested some changes in the Metro rail project for the Tricity which were on Wednesday approved at a meeting held in Chandigarh. The meeting that was chaired by Dharam Pal, the adviser to the Chandigarh Administrator, discussed changes suggested by the Punjab and Haryana governments to the comprehensive mobility plan (CMP) Wednesday, a month after the metro rail project for the Tricity area got in-principle approval.
Now within a day, the approved plan will be sent to the Centre.
Punjab principal secretary (housing and urban development) Punjab suggested including a new Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) route connecting NH-64/PR-7 Junction to Rajpura in MRTS phase-II.
He suggested including MRTS routes from Paroul, New Chandigarh, to Sarangpur, Chandigarh, in Phase-I. The Punjab government also furnished comments regarding the CMP to the Chandigarh Administration, which have been examined and incorporated in the final CMP report.
The director of Haryana Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (HMRTC) suggested that the corridor from Shaheed Udham Singh Chowk (ISBT Panchkula) to Panchkula extension be included in Phase-1 instead of Phase-II. He also suggested modifying the MRTS corridor for connecting Sector-20 Panchkula.
UT Adviser Dharam Pal directed Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES), which proposed the MRTS spread across Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula, to include the observations of Punjab and Haryana in the updated final report.
All stakeholders unanimously approved the final CMP report submitted by RITES with the above observations.
The adviser also directed RITES to start preparing alternatives analysis report (AAR) and detailed project report (DPR) for the MRTS in the Tricity area.
Senior officials of the Punjab and Haryana governments, Civil Aviation, Air Force and railway authorities attended the meeting.
Metro project after 14 years
Finally after over 14 years of a long debate of having or not having a Metro, Chandigarh and the tricity area would soon see Metro rail becoming a reality with both Punjab and Haryana governments coming on the same page.
Last month, at a high-powered meeting with Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, metro was approved for the Chandigarh and Tricity area of which the majority part would be in Mohali in Punjab, followed by Chandigarh and Panchkula in Haryana.
RITES agency was hired to conduct a feasibility study of the traffic scenario in and around Chandigarh. According to the detailed plan prepared by the RITES, of the total 48 kilometres of stretch, basically 38 km would be completed in the first phase and 10 km in the second phase.
Phase I and Phase II
Of the 38 kilometres to be covered in the first phase, 14.5 kilometres will be in Chandigarh, eight kilometres in Panchkula and 25.5 kilometres in Mohali.
Chandigarh will see the entire 14.5 kilometres completed in the first phase, Panchkula will see 3.5 km stretch completed in the first phase and 4.5 km in the second phase while Mohali will see 20 km completed in the first phase and 5.5 km in the second phase.
The proposal as approved has now been sent to the Government of India for final approval as the entire cost of metro would tentatively work out to be around Rs 10,570 crore, out of which Rs 1,795 crore will be spent in the first phase and Rs 6,898 crore in the second phase and Rs 1,878 crore in the third phase.
What will MRTS in Tricity have
The mass rapid transport system (MRTS) will also comprise the proposed bus terminals, bus depots, geometrical improvements at busy intersections. MRTS, as suggested by the RITES agency, means a robust mass rapid transport system, that is metro, to encourage more people to switch from private vehicles to public transport.
Phase one would have MRTS from Grain Market chowk to ISBT Panchkula (Budanpur chowk) and ISBT, Sector 43, to ISBT, Zirakpur chowk. It mentioned that the MRTS phase II would be from ISBT, Panchkula, Budanpur chowk to Panchkula extensions and Airport Chowk to village.
In the MRTS, there would be a stronger network of footpaths, cycle lanes and public bike- sharing scheme across the Tricity, 18 underpasses at major intersections in city, mostly on Madhya Marg, geometric improvements at 12 intersections for better commute.
A 2009 report of the RITES on Chandigarh’s traffic survey that had suggested a metro was scrapped after years of dilly-dallying. Only last year, the RITES was again asked to conduct a study of the Chandigarh’s traffic scenario.
Chandigarh Member of Parliament Kirron Kher had always been against Metro in Chandigarh. She had stated that she wont let the city get uprooted for a project that has no viability. Following this, the Metro project never took off.
Chandigarh adds 120 bikes and cars daily
Chandigarh already has the ‘honour’ of highest vehicle density in the country, adding approximately 120 bikes and cars every day since 2012.
According to the data obtained from the Registering and Licensing Authority from 2012 till December 2022, on average since 2012, Chandigarh added about 4.70 lakh cars, motorcycles/scooters, without suitably augmenting its roads and infrastructure to cater to the vehicles, including more than two lakh cars alone choking its roads.
The 11-year data obtained from the RLA, of the total 4,69,544 vehicles added since 2012, a total of 2,61,298 were motorcycles/scooters and 2,08,246 are cars. Not just this, after 2020, the number of car registrations saw a massive spike outdoing the number of scooters/motorcycles that were earlier registered.
After 2009, it took over 12 years to decide what needs to be done for Chandigarh.
Now after a long gap, it was decided to make a fresh plan all over again.
Chandigarh already has the ‘honour’ of highest vehicle density in the country, adding approximately 120 bikes and cars every day since 2012. 
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