Gurgaon: Construction of the Sector 33 metro depot may begin soon. After months of delays, Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL) is expected to award the contract next week. The depot-cum-workshop will serve the upcoming metro line between Millennium City Centre and Cyber City.A depot is the operational backbone of a metro, where trains are parked, cleaned, inspected and repaired. Planned over around 20 hectares, it will support train stabling, inspection and maintenance for the elevated line. The project includes civil, architectural, and electrical and mechanical (E&M) works.“The agency has been finalised. We expect the work to be awarded next week and construction can begin immediately,” a senior GMRL official said, adding that Dilip Buildcon Limited has emerged as the lowest bidder. The project — likely to cost GMRL Rs 420 crore — is expected to take around 21 months to complete.The search for an agency for metro depot construction has dragged on for months. GMRL floated the tender in March and extended it at least four times, but it did not draw adequate participation. Fresh bids invited in June brought in six bids. But only two cleared the technical evaluation and moved to the financial round.Finalising the agency was delayed further because formal clearance of GMRL’s managing director had been pending since Sept. Last month, the Union ministry cleared the appointment of Ajay Kumar as MD, removing the administrative hurdle. Even with the agency finalised, the shifting of utilities is still pending and an around 0.8-hectare private land parcel is yet to be resolved.Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) has started the process of shifting two 66kV bays at its Sector 33 substation to free up land. The bays and associated equipment obstruct the planned entry point of the depot. HVPNL will relocate the equipment, including circuit breakers and current transformers, to another part of the substation and hand the land to GMRL. The work is estimated at around Rs 38 lakh. An HVPNL official said the agency for the shifting is being finalised. “We will award the work within this month and we are targeting to complete the shifting process by March next year,” the official said.A joint venture of Dilip Buildcon and RBL is already building Phase 1, the 15.3-km Millennium City Centre–Sector 9 stretch, which is scheduled for completion in 2027. Around 35% of the civil work is complete and GMRL is assembling the U-girders that will support the tracks. For Phase 2, GMRL invited bids last month for the 14.2-km Sector 9–Cyber City stretch, after Haryana govt cleared the proposal following scrutiny by World Bank. The package includes 13 stations and two elevated flyover-cum-metro structures, about 1.2 km on Old Delhi Road and 800 metres on Bajghera Road.The corridor was initially planned as a fully elevated line with 27 stations and a 1.8-km spur towards Dwarka Expressway. In May, Haryana govt revised the plan, raising the estimated cost to around Rs 8,500 crore. The revised plan adds a 1.8-km spur from Sector 5 to Gurgaon railway station. The city has not seen a metro expansion since 2017, even as rapid urban growth has increased the demand for reliable public transport.
