Ahmedabad: Today, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a new metro line in the margins of the RE-INVEST renewable energy investors conference . The line will link the large West Indian city of Ahmedabad with the state capital, Gandhinagar, offering environmentally friendly and safe transportation for the nine million people of the metropolitan area. German development minister Svenja Schulze, who is representing Germany as a partner country for the conference, met with Prime Minister Modi earlier today. Part of this 600 million euro project was financed through a loan under German development cooperation. Electrification was done by German technology company Siemens.
Development Minister Schulze said, “India’s cities are experiencing growth that is almost unparalleled in the world. If these cities focused exclusively on car transport, their congestion and smog problems would quickly become even more unbearable, and the entire world would be faced with even bigger climate problems. So it is great that Ahmedabad is focusing on environmentally friendly metro transport. This example of Indo-German cooperation benefits the environment and the people of India. However, it also benefits Germany, because our prosperity is based on other countries, too, investing in infrastructure and using some German technology in the process. Germany’s development cooperation has been successful in paving the way for economic cooperation and sustainable development. This support is an investment that pays off – for India, for Germany and for the world.”
Ahmedabad is one of India’s largest cities. It is growing rapidly. Many of its inhabitants work in nearby Gandhinagar, the state capital of Gujarat. Among other things, Gandhinagar is home to a new technology hub. As a result, more and more people commute between the two cities. The present transport infrastructure in this metropolitan area with its population of over nine million can hardly keep pace with these developments. As a result, the region is faced with traffic congestion, extreme smog, and many road deaths. The new Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro line now offers climate-friendly, safe transportation between the two cities. It is projected that, initially, the line will serve 120,000 passengers per day, and that this number will rise to 330,000 over the next 30 years. The new metro line also benefits commuters from poorer neighbourhoods, who are often unable to afford their own car, and women, who now have a safe means of transport. It is expected that the use of the metro line will save 50,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
This metro line is one result of Indo-German cooperation. As part of this cooperation, the German Development Ministry (BMZ) provided a 100 million euro loan at favourable terms to India via KfW Development Bank in order to help finance the line. The project had a total volume of 611 million euros. A German company, Siemens, was involved in the construction process, providing electrification technology.
