Besides making commuting easy for students and the locals, inauguration of the new 11-km Mundka-Bahadurgarh section on Delhi Metro’s Green Line is expected to provide impetus to the over ₹6,000-crore booming footwear industry in the city.
With around 800 footwear manufacturing units in the city’s Footwear Park and Modern Industrial Area, Bahadurgarh boasts one of the largest footwear industries in the country. It now hopes for a surge in profits with better connectivity to Delhi.
- Under consideration are preparations for techno-feasibility studies for metro connectivity on Southern Periphery Road (SPR) and Northern Periphery Road (NPR), Gurugram, and Extension of Rapid Metro towards north up to Mahavir Chowk, Gurugram, also under consideration
- In the near future, Ballabhgarh, Kundli, Gurugram railway station and Gurugram-Faridabad metro links will be on the metro map of the region
- With the commissioning of the Bahadurgarh metro project, metro lines of 37.38 km have become operational in Haryana
- In addition, metro lines of more than 3.21 km in Ballabhgarh is likely to be made operational by August 2018
- Detailed Project Report (DPR) of metro link from Narela to Kundli has already been prepared by the DMRC
- DPR for metro connectivity from HUDA City Centre to Gurugram railway station and for metro connectivity between Faridabad and Gurugram being prepared
- Haryana government has incorporated a special purpose vehicle, namely Haryana Mass Rapid Transport Corporation Limited (HMRTC) for implementation of mass rapid transport projects in the State
- The State government has committed an investment of over Rs.3,500 crore for implementation of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh and Bahadurgarh metro line extensions from Delhi
- Haryana is the first State in the country to develop and implement metro projects on PPP mode. Under this model, the entire cost of the metro project is borne by the private partner
- Rapid Metro has developed metro links on PPP mode. The entire project cost of 12 km of metro links in Gurugram is about Rs.3,400 crore is borne by Rapid Metro. The metro links of 5.1 km from Sikanderpur station to NH-8 and 6.5 km Sikanderpur station to Sector 56 are already in operation
- Source: Haryana Government
Naresh Bansal, owner of Reshma Footwears Pvt. Ltd., hoped that metro connectivity will help increase profits by 25% to 30%, attracting more wholesale buyers.
Traffic jams
“Earlier, wholesale buyers would avoid coming to Bahadurgarh because of the hassle of travelling and traffic jams. They would do most of the buying in Delhi. Now with the arrival of the metro, we expect them to come to us,” said Mr. Bansal.
Former Bahadurgarh Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Sushil Goyal said better connectivity will also address the issue of labour scarcity for the industry during the peak Diwali and Holi seasons.
“It will also mean that travelling to Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar and Karol Bagh in Delhi for raw materials will be hassle free and less time-consuming for industry owners,” said Mr. Goyal.
Though one metro station on the new section is situated in the Modern Industrial Area, which houses several footwear units, Footwear Park is still 5 km away from the new metro line and will benefit more with the proposed expansion of the metro link to Sampla in Rohtak in the times to come.
Rajesh Sood, the director of PDM University which offers various courses like engineering, dental and architecture and planning, said a majority of the over 5,000 students enrolled in its various programmes belong to Delhi and will benefit immensely from the metro.
“We ply around 100 buses daily for our students in different parts of Delhi, but those staying in far-flung areas such as Mukherjee Nagar, Shahdara and Mayur Vihar stand to benefit the most,” he said, adding that the number of buses carrying students will now be reduced as most of them would prefer the metro.
Welcoming the new metro section, Komal Gupta (21), a student at a CA institute at Kohat, said she will now be able to travel late at night without worrying about her safety.
Late classes
“My classes run till 9 p.m. I used to stay back in a paying guest accommodation or at a relative’s place since it is not safe to travel alone by bus. Now I can concentrate on studies without having to worry about travelling. It is a big boon for hundreds of students like me, especially women, studying in Delhi,” she said.
The locals hope the new metro link will also reduce traffic on roads and make the Delhi-Bahadurgarh (Tikri) border congestion free.
