Odisha ropes in DMRC as consultant for Bhubaneswar metro

The project will be constructed through Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Corporation Ltd, a fully-owned entity of the Odisha government. While the state government has already appointed experts for the project, it will be directly supervised by the chief minister’s office, said official sources.
The phase-I will cover a distance of 26 km from Bhubaneswar Airport to Trisulia Square and is expected to be completed in four years. The Odisha cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik approved the metro rail project on Tuesday. The Patnaik government has decided to bear the full cost of the metro project in Bhubaneswar and nearby regions.

“Since DMRC has been successfully operating the metro project in the national capital and has wide experience, we have decided to rope in it as consultant. The project has been aimed at strengthening the public transport system in the capital region. It will also accelerate economic growth,” said a senior government officer, after the cabinet meeting.

The Odisha government had earlier engaged DMRC to prepare the detailed project report for the metro project, which was approved by Patnaik in October. Patnaik will lay the foundation stone of the metro project on January 1, 2024, months before the general and assembly polls in the state.

On April 1, which is the statehood day of Odisha (Utkala Dibasa), Patnaik had announced the metro rail project for Bhubaneswar to strengthen urban mobility.

The Naveen Patnaik government had tried to introduce metro services in Bhubaneswar in 2014. It had engaged a Hyderabad-based Balaji Railroad Systems Limited (BARSYL) to prepare a feasibility report for a mass rapid transit system. BARSYL, in its pre-feasibility report, said that a full-scale metro was not feasible in Bhubaneswar, citing low population and huge project cost, and suggested to include some additional areas to make the project feasible.