The first phase of the Metro Link Express in Ahmedabad is supposed to be completed by December 2018.

The first phase of the Metro Link Express in Ahmedabad is supposed to be completed by December 2018. The first phase of the Metro Link Express in Ahmedabad is supposed to be completed by December 2018.

Not even a brick has been laid for the Metro Link Express from Gujarat's financial capital Ahmedabad to the political capital Gandhinagar but the state government has claimed to have spent 472 crore on the project over the past two years.

Not only this, the government has also reported a loss of 23 crore on the Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company Limited in the financial year 2013-14, a mindboggling 140 per cent higher than 9.63 crore in the year before that when the project was launched.

When questioned about the whopping "expenditure" on the project when no work has started, MEGA's Managing Director I.P. Gautam told MAIL TODAY that the money was spent on "land development alongside the (proposed) rail line". However, a spot visit contradicted his statement. The official said the losses reported were "not technical ones but long-term investment".

Incidentally, spending on the project does not include expenses on study of urban transport between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar and detailed project report from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and RITES, which were submitted to the Centre in 2005 and approved the same year.

It may be recalled that the Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had in October last year approved the 10,773 crore phase-1 of the project, of which 1,990 crore will be funded by the Centre while the MEGA company will be converted into a 50:50 joint venture project of the Union and the state governments. The first phase will cover nearly 38 km.

Overall, the 83-km project is to have three phases but the timeline is yet to be fixed.

It took a decade of planning before Chief Minister Anandiben Patel performed the groundbreaking ceremony of the Metro rail project in the industrial suburb of Vastral, Ahmedabad on Saturday evening.

The first phase will have two routes - East-West Corridor and North-South Corridor. The deadline of completion for this phase has been fixed for December 2018, a year after the Assembly elections.