The third week of September this year, coinciding with Navratri will bring a major gift to the citizens of Ahmedabad as the much-awaited Metro is expected to begin it’s operations by then.
Trial runs of the Metro on the North-South corridor have started as the work on phase-I of the project is nearing completion. A team from the office of the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) is scheduled to conduct the final inspection of the operations on the entire stretch of 40 km from August 20.
The Gujarat Metro Rail Service (GMRS) will deal with the necessary paperwork to get final approval to launch the service once the inspection work is done. The metro service is likely to begin by late September as the compliance of CMRS can take up to 15-20 days. Before the actual operations can start, each train has to complete 320 km of trial run.
Covid lockdown and some legal hurdles delayed the project, initially scheduled to be completed in 2021. The metro project where more than Rs 12,500 crore has already been spent, will run on elevated platforms except at the four stations in the underground section- Kalupur, Shahpur, Gheekanta and Kankaria East.
Phase-1 has two corridors. Corridor- 1 is from APMC to Motera stadium while corridor -2 is from Thaltej gam to Vastral gam. Corridor -1 will have stations at Jivraj park, Rajivnagar, Shreyas, Paldi, Gandhigram, Old High Court, Usmanpura, Vijaynagar, Vadaj, Ranip, Sabarmati Railway station, AEC, Sabarmati and Motera whereas corridor- II will pass through Thaltej gam, Thaltej, Doordarshan Kendra, Gurukul Road, Gujarat University, Commerce six roads, S P Stadium, Old High Court, Shahpur, Gheekanta, Kalupur Metro station, Kankaria East, Apparel Park, Amraiwadi, Rabari Colony, Vastral, Nirant Crossroads, Vastral gam.
The maximum fare on Metro trains would be Rs 25 and the minimum would be Rs 5. The fares will be in multiples of Rs 5. The maximum fare of Rs 25 in the corridor -I would be from APMC to Vastral and Motera to Apparel Park. While in corridor-II, Rs 25 would be the fare from Thaltej gam to Vastral, Nirant Crossroads and Vastral Gam. The fares for different stations would be Rs 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25
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