The Delhi government today gave its nod to five new proposed routes under the third phase of Delhi Metro and will now send the recommendation to a Group of Ministers (GoM) for clearance.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of Delhi Cabinet here.

“We have approved five routes of a total length of 108 km under the Metro third phase and now we will send this to the GoM. A route from Najafgarh to Dwarka has been added,” Ms Dikshit told reporters after the meeting. She said a decision will be taken soon on a route linking Bawana.

The other four routes are Central Secretariat to Red Fort, Mukundpur to Rajouri Garden, Jahangirpuri to Badli and Janakpuri (West) to Kalindi Kunj.

The construction of Delhi Metro’s Phase-III is proposed to be taken up in 2011-12. The Central government has allotted Rs 1,351 crore as budgetary support for it.

The Cabinet also discussed the issue of framing a policy on unauthorised religious structures on public land in the city and said norms will be formulated in a couple of days.

“All members expressed their views. We have created a formulation and the officers will fine-tune it in the next two-three days. It will then be finalised. It is a sensitive issue and as there are so many land-owning agencies here, we will have to decide what responsibilities will be given to them,” the Chief Minister said.

Earlier on April 4, the Delhi government had said it will soon frame a comprehensive policy to remove, relocate or regularise unauthorised religious structures in the city.

A senior Delhi government official had said the policy is being framed following a direction of the Supreme Court which had asked the state governments not to allow any unauthorised constructions in the name of religious structures.

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