The Varanasi Metro is a light rail transit system proposed for the city of

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The proposed system consists of 2 corridors that span from BHEL (Tarna, Shivpur) to

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

(19.35 km) and Benia Bagh to

Sarnath Sarnath (Hindustani pronunciation: aːɾnaːtʰ also referred to as Sarangnath, Isipatana, Rishipattana, Migadaya, or Mrigadava) is a place located northeast of Varanasi, near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers in Uttar Pr ...

(9.885 km). The feasibility study of the project was done by

RITES Rail India Technical and Economic Service Limited, abbreviated as RITES Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India. It is an engineering consultancy corporation, specializing in the field ...

and was completed in June 2015. There will be 26 stations including 20 underground stations and six elevated stations. The two corridors will have total length of 29.235 km consisting of 23.467 km underground, while 5.768 km elevated. The state government allocated 150 crores rupees in February 2019 for the ongoing metro projects in the state.

History

state government had planned to introduce a metro rail system in cities of

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

and

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

. Government has hired an infrastructure development enterprise,

to conduct a traffic analysis. The government had planned to approach

for a detailed project including feasibility and financial viability.

Cost

The total estimated completion cost for construction of Varanasi Metro was estimated to be 17,227 Crores including taxes and duties. The project is envisaged to be undertaken as a joint venture (JV) project between the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

(GoI) and the

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...

(GoUP) with 50:50 equity partnerships. To maintain the financial viability of the project, additional grants have been proposed from the two governments in addition to their equity contribution.

Route

Two corridors had been planned by Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) were: *Corridor 1:

BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India ...

and (19.35 km) A total of 17 Metro stations had been planned (4 Elevated: 3.845 km; 13 Underground: 15.505 km) for the

BHU Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. ...

corridor. *Corridor 2: Benia Bagh to

(9.885 km) A total of 9 Metro stations (2 Elevated: 1.923 km; 7 Underground: 7.962 km) had been proposed for the Benia Bagh to

corridor. The first corridor from

(BHU) to

will take about four years, while the second corridor from Benia Bagh to

will be completed in two years. However, the date of the beginning of the project is yet to be decided.

Detailed Project Report Findings

The

(GoUP) had assigned Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) the responsibility of ‘Coordinator’ for preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Metro in

. Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) is the nodal agency for preparation of this DPR for Varanasi Metro. For this purpose M/s

, a Govt of India Undertaking, has been engaged for preparing the DPR. Work on preparation of DPR for Metro in

commenced in May, 2015 involving series of site visits by LMRC team led by LMRC and

along with VDA officials. Through successive site visits, engineering surveys and review meetings/ discussions with the Commissioner,

and VDA officials, Metro corridors have been finalised for

city and DPR prepared. Under the coordination of Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), M/s

had been able to prepare the DPR. The DPR envisages two corridors with a total length of 29.235 km for the Varanasi Metro Rail project. The first corridor that spreads from

to BHU covers 19.35 km with an elevated stretch of 3.845 km and an underground stretch of 15.505 km. The second corridor consisting of 9.885 km length from Benia Bagh to

covers an elevated section of 1.923 km and an underground section of 7.962 km. According to the DPR, a maintenance depot for both the corridors had been proposed at Ganeshpur covering an area of 13.2 hectares of land. Metro in

will be a three-car unit train running on standard gauge track on Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) signalling technology with continuous automatic train control permitting an operational headway of 90 seconds.

Status updates

* May 2016: Detailed Project Report approved. * September 2017: Detailed Project Report (DPR) dropped due new metro rail policy. New DPR to be created by RITES. * December 2017: New DPR to be commissioned under 'New Metro Rail Policy'. * June 2018: Varanasi Metro Rail Project rejected due to lack of funds. * February 2019: In UP Budget 2019, CM Yogi Adityanath allocated 150 crores. * August 2020: Metro rail found infeasible; light metro proposed. *September 2020: Detailed Project Report (DPR) to be reviewed for metro rail. *February 2021: Uttar Pradesh government allocates 100 crores for the metro.

References

{{coord missing, Uttar Pradesh Proposed rapid transit in Uttar Pradesh Transport in Varanasi Standard gauge railways in India