Bihar has requested the Centre for early approval of the Patna Metro project.

State urban development and housing minister Suresh Sharma visited Delhi last week and called on Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs with the request.

Sharma on Wednesday told The Telegraph: “The Union minister assured me of early approval of the project and said the process of clearing the detailed project report submitted by the Bihar government has been initiated.”

Sharma said the Centre has assured approval of the project within one-and-a-half months.

“We are hopeful that the foundation stone of the Patna metro project would be laid before this year ends,” he added.

The state cabinet had approved the Patna Metro’s detailed project report on October 9 after which it was sent to the Centre for approval.

The project has a cost component of a little over Rs 17,800 crore out of which, states the detailed project report, the state and the Centre would bear 20 per cent each of the total cost and the remaining funds would be mobilised through loan.

The document talks of setting up 33.1km-long tracks on two corridors — East-West and North-South — to provide seamless connectivity to commuters. While the west-east corridor would run between Danapur and Patna railway station via Dakbungalow Square, the south-north corridor would run between the inter-state bus terminal and from there to Rajendra Nagar, then Ashok Rajpath and finally to the railway station via Gandhi Maidan.

The report also states that five years would be taken to complete it from the date of commencement of the project. Amid the wait for central

approval of the report, the state has initiated the process of setting up Patna Metro Rail Corporation Limited, which would be responsible for executing it.

“A director each has to be nominated for the corporation from urban development, finance, transport, energy and road construction departments, out of which energy and road construction departments have not nominated yet. Also, the state has to depute a managing director for the corporation. Once the formality is done, the corporation would be registered as company,” an official with the urban development and housing department said.