Gandhinagar: Gujarat government in reply to a question by Viramgam MLA told the house that the 6 km route of Ahmedabad Metro Project between Vastral and Apparel Park will be operational by the end of 2017. The government said it had spent Rs 407.18 crore in 2015 and Rs 946.83 crore in 2016 on this project.

In reply to another question, the government said it had spent over Rs 1,300 crore in two years for the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro project in Ahmedabad city and received Rs 351.21 crore from the Centre. In 2015 the Centre had allocated Rs 100 crore and in 2016 it gave Rs 251.21 crore to the state as the Centre’s share for the project.

The government said it had spent Rs 407.18 crore in 2015 and Rs 946.83 crore in 2016 on the Metro project. Rs 2,717 crore will be spent by the state on the project of which Rs 1,412 crore will be in the form of equity and the Centre will allocate Rs1,990 crore of which Rs 1,412 crore will be in the form of equity.

The project is being implemented by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA). The Metro rail will be linked with BRTS, railways, and other public transport services so as to develop a multi-model transport service consisting of east-west corridor from Thaltej to Vastral, and north-south corridor from AMPC to Motera.