New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated the completed section of Kanpur Metro Rail Project. Improving urban mobility has been one of the key focus areas of the Government. The inauguration of the completed section of the Kanpur Metro Rail Project is yet another step in this direction.
This completed 9 Km long section is from IIT Kanpur to Moti Jheel. The entire length of the Metro Rail Project in Kanpur is 32 Km, having 2 corridors of which 13 km will be underground. It is being built at a cost of over Rs 11,000 crore. There will be 21 metro stations in the Corridor 1 and 8 metro stations in Corridor 2.
Kanpur is an industrial city in Uttar Pradesh, located on the banks of the Ganga river. The city is well-known for its industries, particularly leather and woolens. Kanpur is also well-known for its role in the country’s freedom struggle. The city is a leader in its field of education too, with several prominent institutes. The present population of Kanpur is about 51 lakh which is expected to go up to 65 lakh by 2041.
Due to large scale development in the Kanpur city, there has been large expansion in the number of vehicles there.  A need has been felt for a long time to develop and implement a fast moving barrier free public transport system. In view of this, the Centre and the State Government decided to implement a world-class Kanpur Metro Rail project.
The 9 km long section of the Kanpur Metro Rail project inaugurated today has 9 metro stations between Kanpur and Motijheel. Completion cost of the project is ₹11076.48 Cr, with the completion time of 5 years.
Kanpur Metro Rail Project comprises of 2 corridors. First corridor from ‘IIT Kanpur to Naubasta’ is 23.8 km long while second corridor from ‘Chandrashekar Azad Agriculture University to Barra-8’ is 8.6 km long.
The construction work on 9 km long priority section of Corridor-1 of the project from IIT Kanpur to Motijheel (9 elevated stations) was inaugurated on 15.11.2019 by Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh. Inspite of 2 covid waves, Kanpur Metro Rail Project maintained a fast pace of construction work and overcame all obstacles and challenges. The UPMRC team have been able to complete the all the work like Civil, System, track, signaling, Lifts & Escalator, Traction work of priority corridor in less than 2 years’ time.
Despite the disruptions in the project works during the period of first and second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, trial run has been done in a time period less than 2 years from the start of construction works, which will be a record in itself.
All the 9 stations of the priority corridor have been certified with platinum rating of ‘Green Building Council’. The entire 9 Km stretch of Kanpur Metro has been developed in accordance with the green building codes that makes it safe for the environment. Due to its stringent compliance with the green building codes and parameters, it has been certified with the ISO-14001 certification for environment management and ISO-45001 certification for safety management.
