Former Union Minister and ex-city MP, Pawan Kumar Bansal urged the need to revive the Metro Project in tricity. He criticized the administration for abandoning the project earlier and said that now there is again a little chance of reviving the project; the decision should be taken carefully.

The project had suffered a major setback after the Union Home Minister Advisory Committee (HMAC) had termed the project unfeasible for Chandigarh in July this year. Members of the committee, which is headed by Union home minister Rajnath Singh, had asked the administration to look for alternatives to strengthen public transport. In the past, Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher has also raised questions about the project's viability.

Bansal said that it was after detailed discussions at different levels and considering reports of different studies that a decision was taken to initiate a Metro project for the tri city. Further surveys were carried out and the routes for the first phase of this futuristic project delineated. It was clearly understood from day one that the project was not just for the city of Chandigarh but even for areas beyond the tricity, if need is later felt. For all practical purposes, things seem to have been given up now, he added.

He further said that he was one of those who pleaded for Metro at every forum, and is saddened that the project has been abandoned. He does not know what inputs have gone into the decision making. The Administrator's Advisory Committee for one was certainly deprived of the opportunity to discuss the matter. The Metro project was conceived to meet the vitally important public transport needs of the area and was not, unlike the bullet train, intended as a show piece for the world, as the Hon'ble PM himself has said for the latter.

Further he said Planning has to be perspective, anticipating our future needs besides meeting the immediate ones. Chandigarh roads, despite maximum widening in the last decade, fall inadequate to support an addition of ten thousand vehicles every four months. Promotion of good public mass and rapid transport is the answer to the problems that manifest with continuing extensive urbanization in the peripheral areas all around Chandigarh. Road connection with these new developed areas cannot be cut off. Rather, to and fro good transport has to be facilitated.