‘Mahanagar stn was part of Metro plan but dropped later’ | India News
LUCKNOW: Did you know that the metro area of the city was part of the metro route in the original alignment plan, but was later left out? A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the state assembly on Friday revealed that the Mahanagar Metro station, between IT College Crossing and Badsha Nagar, was mentioned in the DPR, but did not make it to the final list.The CAG report said that in December 2013, the central government gave pre-approval for Phase-1A. Lucknow Metro. An MoU between the DPR, the Center and the UP government, the finance agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the project agreement with the EIB all specify the construction of 22 stations along the 23-km corridor.According to the DPR, the metropolitan station was projected to receive the third-highest ridership in 2015 and the second-highest ridership by 2020. A Lucknow Municipal Corporation source said the area has two separate wards (Mahanagar and Vivekananda Puri) with a population of over one lakh.However, the audit found that the executing agency — the UP Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) — had constructed only 21 stations, excluding the metropolis from the alignment. The report said that no evidence was produced to show that any proposal was placed before the central or state governments to drop it or any approval was received.The CAG noted that bypassing the approved DPR violated several mandatory documents — DPR, MoU, Finance Agreement and Project Agreement — and deprived the metro area of an important metro facility despite projected high ridership.In September 2024, the state government claimed that the change was not concealed, saying that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs notified the alignment with 21 stations after checking against the original DPR.The CAG found the state government’s response unsatisfactory, noting that while the UPMRC had informed the MoHUA about other major changes — such as changing the proposed elevated station at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport to an underground station — it had failed to disclose the removal of the metro station. The audit emphasized that any deviation from the approved DPR required a separate, explicit approval from the Government of India with justification, which was neither sought nor given.Reacting to the CAG report, UPMRC told TOI that station locations have been optimized by excluding metros. Both ‘IT Chauraha’ and ‘Badsha Nagar’ stations were convenient to be close to the metropolis. Generally a distance of 1 km is maintained between each station.
