Metro Connectivity.

Hon'ble Chief Minister


Sir, We, the citizens of West Zone of Gurgaon, wish to compliment you on your endeavor to extend Metro connectivity to airport via Palam Vihar.

We understand at a recent high-level meeting held in Gurgaon, officials from DMRC and different city authorities have identified three possible routes for the Iffco Chowk-IGI Airport Metro link. The joint team also inspected different sites located on the possible routes, which will be mostly elevated.

We understand while three tentative routes have been worked out the exact route is yet to be finalized after the DMRC completes its feasibility study of the project. The team of officials, designated for this purpose, have inspected several residential colonies in and around Palam Vihar which are located between Gurgaon and IGI Airport. The main priority being to avoid, as far as possible, high rise buildings within the Metro line alignment. The road specifications are being thoroughly inspected to propose possible routes for the elevated Metro track and for this the team has already visited the existing railway tracks in the vicinity of Palam Vihar.

We assume the necessary technical data, for such a gigantic project, like the statistics on existing industry, population, residential neighbor hoods/clusters in the area have already been prepared by the concerned authorities. We are, therefore, not attempting to collect these details from different sources. Sir, our earnest request to you is to give due consideration to the following, while arriving at the final decision.

Command/Catchment area: Unlike present parts of Gurgaon presently covered by Metro, the proposed area has mixed population comprising of (i) heavy industries like Maruti Udyog (ii) a large number of medium and small industries (iii) blue collar work force that comes from far and near to work in these factories (iv) white collar work force that works in offices of both national and multinational companies ( vi) trades and businesses that cater to above population segments ( vii) residential neighourhoods of Palam Vihar, Hudas sectors 4, 5, 21,22 and 23 besides colonies like Ashok Nagar, Sheetla Mata, Dharam Colony, Carter Puri ( viii) Last but not the least, lacs of pilgrims who visit ancient Sheetla Mata Shrine will benefit from this Metro line immensely.

Present Connectivity Constraints Confronting the Area: The area presently suffers from acute entrance and exit bottlenecks. Existing routes through Kapashera, Bijwasan and Sheetla Mata Roads lead to traffic jams for the simple reason that there is little seamless connectivity to and from the various destinations. As a result, there is undue and ever rising pressure on these roads because people have no option but to bring their two wheelers and four wheelers even for covering short distances. A rapid mass transport system like Metro alone can help decongest roads, bringing some order to all round chaos prevailing here.

Likely Connection Constraints and Challenges for the Metro: Its encouraging to note that unlike Delhi and parts of Gurgaon presently covered by Metro, issues of topography, drainage and difficult rail and road crossings are almost absent here. Construction of metro therefore, would require creation of no complex infrastructure. Further, there are no historical or heritage monuments either along the entire rail corridor, requiring additional environmental clearances. Finally, most of construction in the area is low rise thereby facilitating deep excavation work wherever necessary. There is thus no danger to human life nor any threat of environmental or ecological degradation if Metro work is undertaken in this area. People would extend all support to the Metro project.

Benefits of the proposed Metro Link: Though a detailed study would reveal a large number of positive benefits to the public at large, a few may be mentioned here (i) It will not only help increase Metros catchment area enabling more people to use this environmentally friendly means of mass transport instead of driving own vehicles or using public road transport (ii) decongestion of roads, reduced pollution and saving of precious fuel (iii) lesser wear and tear of roads thereby saving public money (iv) pressure on open public spaces along the metro corridor, presently choked by vehicles would reduce, improving quality of life for everyone. (v) direct connectivity to key railway stations of Old Delhi, New Delhi, Nizamuddin and other major trading and business hubs would help reduce to and from vehicular traffic.

Sir, although Gurgaon is regarded as an international city, the infrastructure is, by and large, lacking in this part of the city as far as transport and other modern facilities are concerned. Practically all the major projects like the Rapid Metro, Swanky Malls, besides the Metro, etc have all come up on the other side of the Express Way. Residents of this pocket of the Millennium city feel deprived of the basic amenities.

Sir, we the residents of Palam Vihar and other residential colonies in the vicinity, look forward to this gift from your government to ease the severe connectivity problem the commuters of this area are facing.

With Respectful Regards