Metro spur to Gurgaon railway station put on hold, GMRL told to split it from main project

Gurgaon: The plan to build a metro spur to connect the upcoming Millennium City Centre-Cyber City corridor to Gurgaon railway station has been put on the back burner. World Bank has now asked GMRL to take up the additional line as a separate project.In Oct last year, GMRL board approved the railway station connectivity with the upcoming metro corridor. The 1.8km line was to branch out from Sector 5 and connect directly to Gurgaon railway station at an estimated cost of Rs 454 crore.
The 28.5km metro corridor between Millennium City Centre and Cyber City, approved in June 2023, did not originally include a railway station link. Instead, connectivity was planned through a skywalk. In Nov 2024, however, the state govt decided to construct an additional line to improve intermodal connectivity. GMRL subsequently assigned RITES to conduct a feasibility study. A GMRL official said, "The inclusion of the railway spur will require fresh approvals, funding arrangements and statutory clearances."Apart from financing issues, the spur line could pose operational challenges once the corridor becomes fully functional. GMRL is planning to run trains at a frequency of 2 minutes and 30 seconds in the future to cater to peak-hour demand.Adding multiple branching points may complicate operations, increase turnaround time and reduce the efficiency of the main corridor, the official added.The spur was proposed to improve last-mile connectivity and integrate the metro with the railway network. However, since it was not included in the detailed project report cleared earlier, it would now require fresh technical evaluation and approvals. Statutory compliances such as environmental and social impact assessments were also not carried out for the spur alignment as part of the original project clearances. Any new alignment would have to undergo independent studies and public consultations before work can begin.