In a major push to the Metro Rail network , Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on Thursday highlighted the importance of reaching out to all “two million plus cities” for decongesting them. He also set aside a sum of Rs. 100 crore in the current financial year for two new Metro projects in Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
Mr. Jaitley spoke about how Urban Metro Projects have proved to be very useful in decongesting large cities. “For two million plus cities, planning of Metro projects must begin now.
The government will encourage development of Metro Rail systems, including light rail systems in the public private participation mode, which will be supported by the Central government through the Viability Gap Funding,” he said.
With this the Centre appears to have decided to use the Metro as a tool of rapid and planned urban development. Earlier, only three million plus population cities were considered for Metro projects.
As per Census 2011, there are 19 cities with two million plus population.
