India's first metro rail public-private partnership (PPP), the Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd (MMOPL), was supposed to be the precursor for all such projects.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are being encouraged in India's Metro Policy 2017 and this has opened up opportunities for the private sector, says Elias George, Partner and National Head, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare at KPMG in India.

It was a sad story! But one filled with hope and optimism for the future. As per data shared by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 441 infrastructure projects have incurred cost overruns of Rs 4.35 trillion due to various, but predominantly delay in implementation.

The disruption caused by the nationwide lockdown for the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent workers’ exodus from cities back to their homes will result in technology playing an even bigger role in the execution of the metro rail projects, experts have said.

The commissioning of the first phase of 8-km stretch of the L&T Hyderabad Metro rail project will be taken up at a later date once this stretch touches the busy Secunderabad junction.

Manufacture of Kochi Metro coaches commenced at Sri City manufacturing unit of Alstom Transport India Ltd.

Kochi Metro Rail (KMRL) will commence its commercial operations on 18-km stretch from Aluva to Maharaja´s college by June 2016, a top official has said.

Kochi Metro Rail Limited and National Payment Corporation of India have signed an MoU to be associated with the roll-out of a common mobility card for greater Kochi area through the use of NPCI´s RuPay specifications for cards and payment terminals and other payment modes.

Elias George, Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail (KMRL) expressed hope that there would not be any delay in implementing the metro rail project and it would stick to the schedule. The implementing agency also said that National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) already gave an in-principle approval to carry out construction of the Metro on th