Haryana cabinet clears new metro cost revision to Rs 8.5k crore

Gurgaon: Haryana cabinet on Monday approved the revised project cost of a metro project in the city.

The estimated expenditure for the 28.5-km Millennium City Centre-Cyber City corridor — with 27 stations — shot up to Rs 8,500 crore (nearly 56% up) from Rs 5,453 crore. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by chief minister Nayab Singh Saini.

A senior GMRL official said, “The revised cost is primarily due to escalation in prices and GST revisions, as the project estimates prepared earlier were based on 2019 rates and have now been updated to 2023 rates. In addition, since integration with Rapid Metro could not materialise as initially planned, the Gurgaon Metro corridor now requires independent infrastructure such as a separate depot and related systems. Apart from this, a new spur line connecting the metro corridor to Gurgaon railway station has also been included.”

Officials said additional infrastructure requirements for operating the corridor independently, development of a full-fledged depot, procurement of additional rolling stock and changes in the RRTS alignment were other factors in revision.

In June last year, the GMRL board already approved the revision in project cost. The detailed project report (DPR) for the corridor was prepared by RITES, which earlier received approval from the Haryana cabinet in Aug 2020, followed by clearance from the Centre in June 2023.

Of the revised estimate, Rs 7,098 crore accounts for escalation and GST revisions, Rs 947 crore for independent corridor requirements and Rs 454 crore for the proposed metro spur between Sector 5 and Gurgaon railway station.

The cabinet also authorised the administrative secretary of the town and country planning department, Haryana, to act as the nodal officer for signing agreements and related documents necessary for implementation of the project.

In another key decision, the cabinet approved a proposal to finance the project’s entire soft loan component through World Bank. Under the original project cost, the soft loan component stood at over Rs 2,688 crore, of which Rs 1,075 crore was proposed through World Bank and Rs 1,613 crore through European Investment Bank (EIB).

However, repeated delays in receiving confirmation from EIB prompted the GMRL’s board in Oct 2025 to recommend that the EIB-funded portion may also be financed through World Bank to avoid delays in project timelines. The proposal subsequently received the chief minister’s approval in Dec 2025.

The cabinet also approved a supplementary report related to integration with Rapid Metro. The report outlines the cost implications of developing the Gurgaon Metro as an independent project following changes in the integration scenario with Rapid Metro. It also includes provisions for developing a depot and associated facilities over 22.86 hectares of govt land in Sector 33.

Originally, the DPR was planned with integration with Rapid Metro using its existing infrastructure in terms of its depot and rolling stock. However, it was found to be technically not feasible. The Rapid Metro coach is 2.8 metres wide, while the metro coach is 2.9 metres wide.

Another supplementary report for the proposed 1.8-km metro spur from Sector 5 station to Gurgaon railway station was sanctioned by the cabinet. The link is aimed at improving multimodal connectivity and enabling seamless interchange between metro and railway services in the city.

Earlier, World Bank advised that the railway station spur be processed separately as it was not part of the original sanctioned plan, and including it in the current project could delay approval for the Millennium City Centre-Cyber City corridor. However, the GMRL is going ahead with the additional spur line to connect the Gurgaon railway station.

“We are going ahead with the railway station spur line and will soon submit the proposal to Centre for approval. The directions have already been issued from PIB for the same. Whether it will be constructed under phase-2 of the metro project or a separate tender will be called, it will be decided soon,” the senior official of GMRL said.