GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad Development Authority GDA ) on Monday sounded confident about taking up the Vaishali-Mohan Nagar metro project and the Electronic City-Sahibabad corridor simultaneously, doing a U-turn on an announcement it made last week that the Vaishali-Mohan Nagar route would have to wait for now.GDA officials had last week said on condition of anonymity that funds crunch had forced the development agency to take up the Electronic City-Sahibabad metro route first and put off the other extension project for later. On Monday, GDA vice-chairperson Kanchan Verma contested the funds crunch theory, saying a loan from the NCR Planning Board would make both projects “manageable”.Though she laid down a formula to buttress her claim, Verma did not specify if the other stakeholders in the project, such as the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation or the Housing Board, were in a position to bear the expenses of both projects simultaneously. “The GDA will hold a meeting with the DMRC on Wednesday or Thursday before it sends a proposal to the state government for the two metro extension projects,” Verma said. “We plan to discuss whether the Vaishali-Mohan Nagar extension line and Noida Electronic City-Sahibabad could be taken up together and whether DMRC can implement both of them,” she added.Told that the Dilshad Garden-New Bus Stand metro route was mired in funds issues, Verma explained why she thought funds should not be a problem for the two extension projects in phase 3. “As far as funding of the two metro extension projects is concerned, we are open to the NCR Planning Board’s offer for a loan at relatively low interest rates,” Verma said, adding that the amount is payable within a period of 10 years.Verma further explained that the GDA’s share in the Electronic City to Sahibabad extension line was Rs 571.90 crore of the total Rs 1,886 crore estimated cost. “Let’s assume that for the Rs 2,162-crore Vaishali to Mohan Nagar extension line, the GDA will have to give Rs 600 crore. If we club the two projects, GDA will have to contribute a little over Rs 1,100 crore. If we wish to bear the amount in four years, during which the project will come up, all GDA will have to pay is less than Rs 300 crore per year. This, I think, is manageable,” Verma said.The GDA vice-chairperson also pointed out that the ag-ency had generated revenue worth Rs 750 crore in the last financial year.

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