MP Manish Tewari meets Khattar, requests him to put his personal torque behind the Chandigarh MRTS project

MP Manish Tewari meets Khattar, requests him to put his personal torque behind the Chandigarh MRTS project

Bahadurjeet Singh/royalpatiala.in News /Chandigarh, October 7,2025

Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament from Chandigarh and former Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India met M.L Khattar, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Development on the evening of 6th of October, 2025 in order to personally urge upon him to put his personal torque behind the Chandigarh Mass Rapid Transport System MRTS project.

Tewari handed over a letter to Khattar, in which he exhaustively detailed as to how from November, 2019 onwards, when he was representing the parliamentary constituency of Sri Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, he had been pursuing with the NDA BJP government at the centre that a Mass Rapid Transport System, (MRTS ) on two salient can be considered namely Ambala to Kurali and from Landran to Kalka needs to be immediately conceptualised, utilising the overground railway network and creating a hybrid overground and underground metro system, that  would connect the four cities of Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and New Chandigarh, thereby catalyzing the economic potential of this region.

Tewari stressed the fact that the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) had been very sporadic  in its approach towards the MRTS/Metro Project.

The meetings of the UMTA have also been very ambiguous and there seems to be a lack of clarity with regard to the proper implementation of this project, notwithstanding the fact that RITES had given two feasibility reports, which clearly indicate that the Chandigarh metro project, which would connect the surrounding areas, is viable and should immediately be implemented.

No concrete steps have been taken in this direction to even prepare a detailed project report or even conducting an exhaustive on the ground feasibility study that could be taken up for consideration by the Union Government.

Tewari further pointed out that given the  financial  constraints of Punjab and even Haryana for that matter, and given the fact that Chandigarh being a union territory, which is fully funded by the union government through appropriations from the union budget, it would perhaps not be possible for them to fund this project and bring it to fruition.

If this project has to come to fruition, it has to be taken up as a fully centrally funded project, cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, and the entire project cost, which is estimated at about Rupees 21,000 crores by the RITES report would need to be borne by the union government.

Tewari further pointed out that there are 25 cities across India, where the metro project has been implemented over the past two decades.

He named Kochi, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore as the significant projects in this context to underscore but a few.

However, it is extremely unfortunate that Chandigarh, which serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, and has three cities, which share a contiguous border with it, has  been left out of this developmental paradigm.

Tiwari therefore urged upon Khattar to kindly take this up on a priority and ensure that the central government implements the Chandigarh Metro-MRTS project as a fully funded central project on a top priority basis.