Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated a part of Patna Metro on Monday a few hours before the announcement of the state assembly election program. The corridor is 3.45 km long and is part of the ‘priority corridor’, including three stations Pataliputra bus terminal, zero mile and ghostnath.
Chief Minister Kumar laid the foundation stone of the 9.35 km long tunnel connecting them along with six underground metro stations on the occasion. All these stations will be built under Corridor-1.
After the inauguration ceremony, several members of the Council of Ministers and senior officials, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Singh, traveled in the metro.
The assembly elections dates in the state will be announced by the Election Commission at 4 pm on Monday evening.
An official said that the metro service will be available daily from 8 am to ten in the night and each train will run at a interval of 20 minutes. He said, “The metro will make 40 to 42 rounds per day. Each coach has 138 seats and 945 passengers can travel and travel. 12 seats per train will be reserved for women and disabled passengers. Mobile and laptop charging facility will also be available in each coach. ”He said that the metro coach is specially decorated with Madhubani painting, which reflects the rich cultural heritage of Bihar.
The official said that the fare from Pataliputra Bus Terminal to Zero Mile has been kept at Rs 15 and Rs 30 from Bhootnath.
The underground station and tunnel laid by the Chief Minister will be constructed at a cost of Rs 2,565.80 crore. He said, “This underground section is an important part of the metro project, which will ensure uninterrupted traffic from the busiest areas of the city. Its construction work is targeted to be completed in 42 months. ”
The total cost of the Patna Metro project is Rs 13,925.50 crore, which is being funded jointly by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Central Government and the State Government.
Patna Metro will have two corridors. The first red line (16.86 km) and blue line (14.56 km) will have a total of 24 stations. The first phase of the project is expected to start the complete operation by the year 2027.
The responsibility of security of Patna Metro has been entrusted to Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP).
