Work on the first phase of the Rs 12,000-crore Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro rail link project is expected to start by 2011-end, a senior government official said here on Wednesday.

The first phase of the ambitious project, first in India to be mostly elevated up to five metres from ground-level, would involve investments to the tune of Rs 3,400 crore. Out of the nearly 70-km-long route of the entire project, 24 km will be developed in the first phase, highly-placed sources told Business Line.

The State Government has incorporated a special purpose vehicle (SPV), called the Metro-link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company Ltd, for the implementation of the project and appointed former bureaucrat-turned-entrepreneur Sanjay Gupta as its Chairman recently, besides four other bureaucrats as directors.

When completed, the Metro will link Old and New Ahmedabad, its airport and the State Capital. “We are also considering to link Sanand town, an emerging auto hub, as well as some other industrial hubs around Ahmedabad,” the sources said.

Ernst and Young has been appointed as bid process and corporate advisors while Grand Thornton International Ltd would be internal auditors. A high-level committee, headed by Chief Secretary AK Joti have been appointed as the top decision-making body, which would consider the proposals submitted by MEGA soon.

At present, the project has evolved from the conceptualisation stage to the engineering phase with detailed plans being drafted for the next stage, execution. “As soon as we get the zero-date, i.e. final approval, and financial closure, we would start work to complete the project within 30 months.”

The initial frequency of the Metro trains will be five minutes at peak hour in 2015, and average stations will be at a distance of 800 to 1,000 metres. It will have an automatic fare collection system with five levels of system facilities using smart card technology.

The State Government has described MEGA as a “zero-land acquisition project” as most of the Metro rail link network will be erected on an elevated corridor constructed on public roads, although acquisition may become necessary at certain points. The Gujarat Urban Development Corporation (GUDC) has directed the civic and urban bodies of both Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad not to clear any new projects, with its GUDC’s) no-objection certificate (NOC) in the 150-metre radius along the proposed Metro-route.

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