Srinagar, Oct 03: Congress leader Sanjay Sapru has questioned the return and rejection of the Jammu and Srinagar Metrolite proposals from New Delhi, saying the projects have lost nearly a decade since they were first proposed, while public money was spent on preparing Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and the estimated cost continued to rise.
“Projects worth Rs 9,802 crore remained stuck since 2017 and have now been returned and rejected. Public money was consumed, valuable years were lost and the cost of the projects mounted with every passing year,” Sapru said.
Revisiting the history of the projects, Sapru said the original 2017 heavy metro proposal envisaged a 58-km network at an estimated cost of Rs 15,881 crore but was subsequently rejected by the Centre. Fresh DPRs were thereafter prepared by RITES Ltd, Gurgaon, in 2023 under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Metrolite Guidelines of 2019.
The proposed Srinagar corridor, he said, stretched 25 km from HMT to Indira Nagar with 24 stations at an estimated cost of Rs 5,733 crore, up from Rs 4,892 crore in 2021. The Jammu corridor covered 23 km from Bantalab to Bari Brahmana through 22 stations at an estimated cost of Rs 4,069 crore.
Sapru said that despite the preparation of fresh DPRs, both proposals remained pending with the Ministry from 2023 and were eventually sent back without final approval, leaving the projects without a definite implementation timeline.
He also questioned the expenditure incurred on preparing the DPRs and related exercises. According to him, around Rs 8.50 crore was spent on DPR preparation, apart from expenditure on TA/DA and official exposure visits.
He recalled that between 2016 and 2021, visits were undertaken to metro systems in Delhi, Kochi and Lucknow, while experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency also visited Jammu and Srinagar to assess a proposal that had earlier been conceived for Japanese funding.
“Kochi made its metro operational in less than five years. Some may offer excuses in the name of disturbances, but the real question is why the project could not move forward despite nearly a decade having passed since its conception,” Sapru said.
The Congress leader said the delay had also resulted in a significant increase in the estimated cost of the Srinagar project, which rose by around Rs 840 crore in two years.
Sapru said the issue was not limited to the fate of the two proposed projects but also involved the public expenditure incurred during the process and the opportunity cost of delaying a mass-transit system for Jammu and Srinagar.
He said the estimated Rs 9,802-crore projects now required clarity on their future, including whether fresh proposals would be prepared and whether the Metrolite concept would be revived.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have already paid the price in lost time, public expenditure and cost escalation. There must now be clarity on what happens to the projects, the money already spent and the years lost,” Sapru said.
