Metro Phase-2 Tender Delay Risks 2029

GURUGRAM: The civil construction tender for Gurugram Metro's Phase-II stretch from Sector 9 to Cyber City remains pending with the Haryana government, leaving little cushion for a corridor that typically needs about four years from tendering to commissioning if the 2029 completion target is to hold, project officials said.

The new line connecting Millennium City Centre with Cyber City is being built in two phases. Work on the 15.3 km Phase-I corridor between Millennium City Centre and Sector 9 started after the contract was awarded in August last year and is scheduled for completion by 2028. Phase-II, which would take the metro from Sector 9 to Cyber City, has not yet entered construction.

World Bank completed scrutiny of the Phase-II tender documents towards the end of July and the file was sent to the state government, a person familiar with the project said. The papers have remained pending since then. Even after the tender is invited, selecting a contractor is expected to take three to four months. Construction would then take around two-and-a-half years, followed by nearly a year for testing and commissioning of track, signalling and traction systems.

Every month lost before award shortens the time available for building and trials. Officials still speak of the 2029 target, but further delay in clearing or awarding the Phase-II tender would push back the start of construction and make full-corridor completion before the next Haryana assembly election harder.

A GMRL official said construction on the priority-1 corridor is progressing steadily and the civil tender for priority-2 will be floated once approval arrives. The project is being monitored at the Prime Minister's Office level. Last month, the Prime Minister asked the chief secretary to take ownership and speed up execution after delays drew high-level attention.

Financing changes earlier slowed the project. Initial portions were government-funded; later phases involved an international lender, requiring extra procurement scrutiny. After the European Investment Bank withdrew, KfW was brought in before World Bank became part of the funding arrangement. Leadership at GMRL has also changed, with Mukul Kumar appointed managing director in place of Chandra Shekhar Khare.

The depot construction tender, estimated at about Rs 409 crore, is yet to be allotted. The Union government sanctioned the corridor in June 2023 as a 28.5 km elevated line with 27 stations and a 1.8 km spur towards Dwarka Expressway. The estimated cost was revised by the state this year to about Rs 8,500 crore, with an additional spur from Sector 5 station to Gurugram railway station.

Without Phase-II, the operational network will not deliver the full Millennium City Centre to Cyber City link that planners promised. Phase-I U-girder assembly is under way, but the Sector 9 to Cyber City section remains the missing half of the city's long-awaited mass-transit expansion since 2017.

Commuters between old Gurugram and Cyber City continue to rely on buses, shared cabs and the older Rapid Metro spur while the new corridor waits for Phase-II. Planners say the full elevated line is meant to cut peak-hour pressure on MG Road, NH-48 interchanges and the Delhi-Gurugram expressway approaches. Until the tender is cleared, those benefits remain on paper for the western half of the alignment.

GMRL has been assembling U-girders on the Phase-I stretch, a visible sign of progress that contrasts with the stalled paperwork for Sector 9 onwards. Officials involved in procurement say the state vetting chain for large metro packages now resembles the scrutiny applied to other high-value Haryana tenders above fixed thresholds. That process improves oversight but adds calendar time that the 2029 clock can ill afford.