Chandigarh to ask for mass rapid transit system to cover parts of Capitol

CHANDIGARH: The UT administration has decided to include parts of Unesco world heritage site Capitol Complex in the first phase of the mass rapid transit system (MRTS) recommended by the RITES in its mobility plan for better traffic management in the Tricity.The new origin and destination sites to be included are the Punjab and Haryana secretariat and the Punjab and Haryana high court, both falling within the Capitol Complex, and premier medical institute PGI. The UT has also given its consent to connect the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, located in Mohali with the MRTS. The administration will send a report to the ministry of housing and urban affairs for approval. The new additions are on the request Punjab and Haryana.Citing that these locations have huge volume of traffic and thousands of employees, visitors and patients visit these places, the two states pitched for congestion-free traffic to these areas.Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had even raised the point during a meeting with all stakeholders last month. “Since thousands of employees, lawyers, visitors and common public visit the secretariat, the high court and the PGI, both the state governments were consistently demanding their inclusion in the route. We decided to add them as their argument was logical,” sources said.A senior UT official said, “We are adding these points for the first phase as per requests of the two state governments. Bigger concerns— whether the MRTS should be overhead or underground, how the sites will not be disturbed from the heritage point of view — will be discussed at the stage of preparation of detailed project report (DPR).”On connectivity with the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, the UT has made it clear it would provide facilities up to their jurisdiction and Punjab will have to create infrastructure on its side. “The budget of the project is to be shared. The state government will have to spend money on areas under their jurisdiction,” a senior UT officer said