India’s first privately funded metro commences commercial operations

India's first fully privately funded Rapid Metro Gurgaon announced the start of commercial operations from Gurgaon in Haryana yesterday, media reports said.

The commercial operation of the metro was inaugurated by Sanjiv Rai, managing director and chief executive officer of IL&FS Rail Ltd, in Gurgaon, the report said.

Rapid Metro Gurgaon line would be open to commuters from 6.05 am till 12:20 (midnight).

Five fully automated trains with a frequency of 4 minutes would run between the six stations with each train carrying over 800 commuters on each trip.

Rai said, "We are proud to announce the start of commercial services of Rapid Metro Gurgaon. The aim of building the metro network was not only to provide easy access to inter-city commuters but also to provide a world class transport system to the residents of the Millennium City. We assure our riders that we will continue to provide them with the best of our services in many more times to come".

The metro is expected to change the landscape of Gurgaon, which borders Delhi.

The fully privately-financed metro system in the country has been launched in the public-private partnership mode. The metro was built at a cost of nearly Rs1,100 crore and took 30 months to reach the present stage.

Connectivity within Cyber City, the corporate and retail hub of Gurgaon, is expected to get a boost with the metro. Nearly a lakh people visit the hub each day.

According to Rai, it was expected that about 30 per cent of existing road traffic would move to Rapid Metro, thereby reducing travel time and traffic jams for commuters on Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

The fare structure of Rapid Metro was integrated with the more popular Delhi Metro, linking the capital both with Gurgaon (Haryana) and Noida and Vaishali in UP.

Delhi Metro web site would feature a link to the Rapid Metro web site and those holding Delhi Metro Smart Cards would be able to seamlessly use the Rapid Metro. The land for the development was provided by the Haryana Urban Development Authority.