Ghaziabad Metro extension paused for lack of funds
Ghaziabad- It was earlier planned that Delhi Metro will be extended from Delhi’s Dilshad Garden to New Bus Stand. But now since the Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam is unwilling to fund the project, controversy has begun.
The municipal commissioner has sought help of the Uttar Pradesh government’s permission to overrule the board and allow to proceed with funding of the project, said Rajendra Tyagi, municipal councillor. This matter has given rise to serious legal issues, he added.
The municipal commissioner alleged that the grant from infrastructure fund can be utilized for a project which incurs regular income to the corporation. But in this case, the corporation would not be receiving regular income from metrolink but other government agencies would make profit through price escalation in their properties.
Noting that the municipal corporation is a self-funding government organisation to maintain the city colonies which had been developed by the authorities and realtors and were handed over to it for maintenance, Tyagi claimed that the metro project in other states like Delhi were funded by the state government.
A grant of Rs 15,000 crore has been approved by the state government in the recent state budget for the Lucknow metro project. But the government has not allocated any fund for Ghaziabad metro project. Rather it has imposed an additional load of Rs 185 crore on the Ghaziabad municipal corporation through distributed funding pattern made by the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA).
However, the sharing experience with GDA was not pleasant for the GMC. Earlier, GDA had assured to pay the money for the land which it sold to private builders but never did and the outstanding amount has gone to Rs 500 crore. Because of this reason, the municipal corporation has denied the funds for the metro project, he alleged. Since the metro is an important need, the municipality has requested the state government to provide funds.
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Delhi Metro, Dilshad Garden, Ghaziabad, Ghaziabad Development Authority, Ghaziabad metro project, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation, Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam, Government agencies, Legal Issues, Lucknow metro project, metrolink, Municipal Commissioner, Private builders, Rajendra Tyagi, Uttar Pradesh government
