Still smarting under his ‘forced’ exit from the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet, senior BJP leader Babulal Gaur on sought to corner his party’s government on floor of the Legislative Assembly over Bhopal and Indore metro rail projects, which are likely to be completed by 2022.
“Urban Administration and Development Department prepared a project to run metro rail in Bhopal and Indore around 6-7 years ago. Thereafter, E Sreedharan of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) visited two cities, but since then the project couldn’t kick off as required due to indifference and red-tape,” the 86-year-old politician said.
Mr. Gaur had to resign as Home Minister in a recent rejig of the Cabinet, apparently due to his advanced age which is beyond the cut-off at 75 years adopted by the BJP.
Replying to mr. Gaur’s call attention motion in the House, Urban Administration and Development Minister Maya Singh contended that it was not true that her department had prepared the metro project 6-7 years ago.
She said her department had taken the decision to carry out Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) of the metro train operation with the help of DMRC, following which the work to go for a detailed project report (DPR) began.
“In accordance with the interim report of the DPR, MP Metro Rail Company was formed in July 2015. Right now, the DPR is with the Centre for approval and efforts are on to get funds from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project,” she added.
However, Mr. Gaur shot back, saying, “I pity the reply given by the Minister. The delay on the part of government in the project is the proof of government’s incompetence,” he said.
He said the work on metro rail project for Bhopal and Indore had started along with Jaipur and Lucknow.
“...The metro rail service has already started in Jaipur while a huge part of work to run this service is over in Lucknow whereas in Madhya Pradesh it’s ‘just being looked into’,” said Mr. Gaur who had served as Chief Minister of state between 2004 and 2005.
Continuing his diatribe, Mr. Gaur said the officer of the Bhopal Metro Rail Company “does not have any knowledge of railway”.
To this, Ms. Singh replied a team of JICA has visited Madhya Pradesh and that the first phase of the metro will commence in 2016.
“The metro railway project in two cities will be completed in 2021-2022,” she said.-PTI
