GMDA projects progressing, DPR for MRTS reviewed, says Baruah

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 11: The Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has completed the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed rail-based Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) of Guwahati, and Dispur has already reviewed its DPR and the proposed the extension of a corridor from Guwahati to North Guwahati. The Cabinet decision for it, however, is awaited.

Talking to newsmen at GMDA office at Bhangagarh office in the city today, GMDA chairman Dhiren Baruah said: “We didn’t get the required cooperation from the Congress government as we get now from the present dispensation at Dispur. The construction work of Metrorail will be taken up in phases, and the corridor from Jalukbari to Guwahati Refinery will be taken up in phase-I.”

According to Baruah, for the expansion of the city in the North Bank two bridges across the Brahmaputra – one from Panbazar to North Guwahati and the other from Palasbari to Sualkuchi – are in pipeline and global tender has already been called for consultancy work.

Baruah said the ropeway project connecting North and South Guwahati has resumed after a gap of five years. “The government has issued administrative approval for an additiol amount of Rs 28.36 crore to complete the project which is scheduled to be completed by July 2017,” Baruah said, and added: “Two automatic multilevel car parking lots, one at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) campus and the other at Shraddhanjali Kan in the city with a capacity of 300 cars, are expected to be completed by April this year. The Old Jail land at Fancy Bazar in the city will be developed as a botanical garden in line with Singapore Botanical Garden.”

Baruah further said that the Rs 394.53-crore 107 MLD capacity South Guwahati West Water Supply Project under the Jawharlal Nehru tiol Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) will be commissioned by April this year when around 70 per cent population of the city will get potable water. “The project will be operated and maintained by Guwahati Jal Board,” he said, and added that to back government’s decision to make Digital India a success, the GMDA has already started online building permission and e-card payment facilities.