The Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) signed a loan agreement on 19 October for financing the Phase II of Ahmedabad Metro.

Backed by French Development Agency’s financing of over Rs 1,700 crores, Phase II will expand the metro towards Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat.

The GMRC, which is building the Ahmedabad Metro, is a 50:50 joint venture between the Government of India and the state government of Gujarat.

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the Ahmedabad Metro project is about 40.03 km long which connects four corners of the Ahmedabad city with 2 corridors and 32 stations.

The 18.87-km North-South corridor connects APMC Vasna to Motera Stadium and is completely elevated with 15 stations.

The East-West Corridor between Thaltej Gam and Vastral Gam (total length 21.16 kms) has 17 stations. This corridor also has a 6.6 km underground section with four stations and the rest is the elevated stretch with 13 elevated stations.

Phase 2

The second phase of the project will connect the state capital Gandhinagar with Ahmedabad, which will essentially be the expansion of the first phase.

The Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project Phase-II is 28.25 kms long with two corridors. Corridor 1 is 22.8 kms long and is from Motera Stadium to Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar having 20 stations.

Corridor 2 is 5.4 kms long and is from the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) to GIFT City having two stations.

The entire Phase-II will be on an elevated route. The total completion cost of Phase-II project is Rs 5,384 crores.

The union government had approved the Phase 2 project in February 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone on 4 March 2019. The construction work commenced in February 2021.

Financing of Metro

The first phase of Ahmedabad Metro Project has been partially funded by the Japan -International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

JICA provided an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of Rs 6,066 crore for Phase 1 at concessional conditions including 1.4 per cent of interest rate and 30 years of repayment period (including moratorium of 10 years).

The entire Phase 1 project has been built at a cost of more than Rs 12,900 crores.

Staggered Opening

The Phase-1 of Ahmedabad Metro, which consists of East-West and North-South corridors, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 30 September.

The East-West Corridor was partly operational since March 2019, when PM Modi had inaugurated a 6.5-km stretch of the corridor between Vastral Gam and Apparel Park.

Despite the inauguration, work on phase 1 is expected to be finished only by March 2023. The incomplete sections include a 1.4-km stretch between Thaltej and Thaltej Gam, the westernmost stretch of the East-West corridor.

The other incomplete parts are the underground station of Kankaria East and the Sabarmati metro station (which will provide one of the two crucial interlinks for passengers travelling on the planned bullet train and the Indian Railways network).