The new plan proposes a 5.83km metro route that will pass through areas near CISF, DPS Indirapuram, Ramlila Ground, Niti Khand, Gyan Khand and Ramprastha before connecting to Vaishali Metro station.

Officials of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) said on Monday that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has submitted a tentative 5.83km plan to connect Noida’s Sector 62 Metro station to Vaishali Metro station in Ghaziabad. This is the third such plan to be submitted by DMRC to extend the metro line to Ghaziabad city.

“The DMRC has submitted us a tentative plan to connect the Sector 62 Metro station on the Blue Line to Vaishali Metro station in Ghaziabad. According to the new plan,the line passes through Indirapuram to reach Vaishali station. The two previous plans have not been dropped as such. We will now study the new plan to find out whether it is feasible. Land is required for construction and, later, the funding pattern will be decided,” said Manvendra Singh, officiating chief engineer, GDA.

Officials expect that the new plan would cost about ₹1,300-1,400 crore once a detailed project report is made.

The new plan proposes a 5.83km metro route that will pass through areas near CISF, DPS Indirapuram, Ramlila Ground, Niti Khand, Gyan Khand and Ramprastha before connecting to Vaishali Metro station. Officials said four stations may be developed under the new plan near Vaibhav Khand, DPS, Niti Khand and Gyan Khand.

Earlier, in January 2020, the DMRC had submitted plans to link Noida’s Sector 62 and Sahibabad at a cost of ₹1,517 crore and a second line to connect Vaishali with Mohan Nagar at a cost of ₹1,808.22 crore.

But the state government this January denied state funding sought by GDA, officials said. In May, the state again denied 50 per cent funding for the two extensions.

The GDA officials said an altogether new alignment through Indirapuram has been envisaged in the new plan as the under-construction Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) has been proposed to link New Bus Adda to Sahibabad and further to Anand Vihar in Delhi.

“We are of the view that city commuters who wish to travel to Sahibabad and Anand Vihar may make use of RapidX trains on the RRTS line. Otherwise, there is no point in linking Mohan Nagar to Vaishali via Metro. The new tentative plan submitted recently for linking Noida’s Sector 62 to Vaishali would involve the acquisition of private land in patches. So, the authority is assessing the new plan and may give it the go ahead once the other modalities are cleared,” said a GDA official, asking not to be named.

“The earlier two plans were proposed when the option of RRTS was not there. So, a new route has been proposed since the RRTS is about to start operations,” the official added.

The GDA, over the past one and half years, have deliberated on different alternatives such as ropeway, Metro Neo, and Metro Lite in place of the previously proposed Metro extensions. But GDA dumped these alternatives in favour of Metro.

The 82km RRTS is proposed to link the three cities of Delhi,Ghaziabad and Meerut by March 2025. A 17km section in Ghaziabad, from Sahibabad to Duhai Depot, is almost complete and likely to commence operations in coming weeks. This section passes through New Bus Adda and Sahibabad, said GDA.