Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, will soon have a Metro. This will be the fourth such public transportation system in the country after Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore.

The Urban Development Ministry has reportedly approved the project after consistent lobbying for nearly a decade by the Punjab and Haryana governments and the Chandigarh administration. The Metro rail project would link Chandigarh and the adjoining sub-cities of Panchkula in Haryana and Mohali in Punjab. Thousands of commuters including office-goers and students crisscross the two satellite townships and Chandigarh, together referred to as the tricity.

Chandigarh has one of the highest vehicle density in the country with over six lakh registered vehicles. The Metro project is scheduled to be completed in the next five years and aims at reducing the city’s traffic congestion considerably. In the first phase, the Metro would ferry about 25,000 passengers, sources said.

“The Metro will be a great boon for the city choking with traffic at peak hours,” said a senior official of the administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity saying they were still awaiting communication from the ministry.

The sudden approval of the project by the ministry has come as a surprise to the officials of the administration after a committee set up by the Centre to study feasibility of the project had recently ruled out the Metro rail and the Monorail for the city as viable public transport options. Instead, the committee as also the ministry officials had favoured the shoring up the public bus systems in the city. One of the contentions of the committee against the Metro had been the city's small area of only 114 square km.

The chief secretaries of Punjab and Haryana and the advisor to the Chandigarh administration had unanimously voted for the Metro for the city during a meeting attended by senior officials of the urban development ministry last week.