Hero Image

Ashok Gehlot inaugurates walled city part of Jaipur Metro, costliest with no hopes in returns on investment

Jaipur: The most important statement CM Ashok Gehlot made during the inaugural function of the underground phase of Jaipur metro was that his Government is not seeing loss or profit in running the Metro because it is the social responsibility of the Governments to provide cheap and easy transport service to people.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday e-dedicated the State’s first underground Metro train to the public through video conference and virtually flagged off the Metro. This Metro train will run in the walled city of Jaipur under Metro Phase 1-B covering the distance of 2.12 km from Chandpole to Badi Chaupar.

“Running of Metro trains from Chandpole to Badi Chaupar will ease the travel of tourists in the walled city and will reduce the pressure on traffic,” Gehlot said.

Then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on September 21, 2013 had laid the foundation of Metro Phase 1-B and at that time it was expected that this phase will get completed in two and a half years, but the pace slowed down with the change in government and now it has completed in March 2020.

The Chief Minister thanked Union Urban Development Ministry for the cooperation in completing the Metro Phase 1-B. He requested to explore the possibilities of starting a low-cost Metro Lite Project in the State. Besides this, he demanded to connect cities such as Jodhpur and Bikaner with Smart City Project so that urban development works could take place in these cities also.

Urban Development Minister Shanti Dhariwal said no Tier-2 city was having Metro trains when the Metro started in Jaipur. It could be possible because of the willpower of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot at the time of the previous Government. He hoped that safe, pollution-free, cheap and comfortable travel will be accessible to people along with tourists coming to Jaipur with the starting of underground metro. This will also ease traffic jams to a great extent in the walled city.   

READ ON APP