"With the Planning Commission having agreed to it, the Metro rail will come to Patna," Bihar Urban Development Minister Prem Kumar said.
The Metro rail will be introduced on two routes under the public-private partnership mode.
"A breakthrough for Metro rail in Patna was finally made in a marathon meeting with a senior official of the Planning Commission that was held here Sep 14," an official confirmed.
Planning Commission advisor Rajendra Haldia discussed the project with top officials of the state urban development department. "They also made an inspection of the likely Metro rail routes - Dak bunglow Square to Saguna Morh and Danapur to Patna city," the official added.
In the wake of Bihar government decision to build Marine Drive type road all along the Ganga in Patna, Patnaites are now looking up to CM Nitish Kumar to take the initiative to provide metro rail facility to cope with huge traffic snarls in the city.
Sources said the Nitish government has already discussed the feasibility of the metro rail project in Patna with the Delhi Metro authorities. The state government was earlier inclined to go for a joint venture with the railways for this project. A senior Railway Board official from New Delhi had explored its feasibility a few months ago. However, the matter yielded no tangible results so far.
According to former technical expert of the railways G N Sahay, cities having the population of over 20 lakh, are being provided with metro rail facilities. The Centre has recently approved the plan for metro rail projects for cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi. Patna having the population of about 23 lakh, is urgently in need of this facility, he said.
