Tejashwi Yadav unveils vision for 'New Bihar' ahead of 2025 Assembly elections
Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, on Tuesday laid out his vision for governance if the RJD was voted to power in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, highlighting his past achievements and future commitments.
In a detailed Facebook post, Tejashwi reflected on his 17-month tenure in government, claiming that under his leadership, 5 lakh jobs were provided, and another 3.5 lakh jobs were set in motion.
'We have shown that with dedication, hard work, and enthusiasm, even the impossible becomes possible,' he wrote, taking a direct swipe at the NDA government for 'confusing the public with excuses of impossibility for 20 years.'
LoP Tejashwi also reminded the public of the 10 lakh jobs promise made in the 2020 Assembly elections, which had been mocked by ruling parties at the time.
'Our performance proved that the goal was not only achievable but realistic,' the RJD leader asserted.
Calling the caste census a landmark step, Tejashwi credited Bihar's unity for making it happen and termed it a "demand of time and justice".
Tejashwi reiterated his commitment to implementing a 65 per cent reservation policy and announced plans for a domicile-based policy to restore the pride and rights of Biharis.
Tejashwi vowed to provide Rs 2 lakh per person per year to 94 lakh poor families and increase the social security pension from Rs 400 to Rs 1,500 per month, saying these proposals had already forced the NDA to re-evaluate their stand.
Laying out a blueprint for Bihar's industrial transformation, Tejashwi promised projects like Global IT Parks, industrial hubs, textile parks, pharmaceutical clusters, education cities, and food processing units.
'Our intention is clean, age may be young, but our resolve is strong,' he said.
He assured that if the public blessed his party RJD with power, the government would immediately launch into inclusive and positive politics, aiming to make Bihar the number one state in India within five years.
Tejashwi ended his message with a direct appeal to the people to vote out the 'double standards' of the NDA and build a 'Naya Bihar (New Bihar)'.
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The Hindu
40 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Justice Yashwant Varma Fire Scandal: Who Burnt the Cash?
Published : Jun 24, 2025 14:03 IST - 11 MINS READ That the judicial career of erstwhile Delhi High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma, is over is no longer in doubt. However, at the heart of his cash-burning scandal lies one basic question—whose money was it? That question still doesn't have an answer. At around 11:35 p.m. on March 14 this year, a fire broke out in a store room attached to the government bungalow of Varma in Delhi. It should have been an unremarkable episode—maybe a short circuit, some papers damaged, a garden hose used to douse the flames. Instead, what followed was a slow-motion unravelling of one of the most significant scandals in the Indian judiciary's recent memory. Firemen and police personnel who entered the premises that day would later testify before the three-member In-House Committee set-up by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) that they saw stacks of burning or half-burnt Rs.500 notes lying on the floor, smoke curling from them. One of them captured a video on his phone, and someone can be heard saying, 'Mahatma Gandhi me aag lag rahi hai'. Over the weeks that followed, the judiciary tried to keep things in-house, quite literally. But the blaze wouldn't die. It took about a week for someone to leak the story to a news publication. The findings, now leaked The 64-page report of the In-House Committee—comprising High Court Chief Justices Sheel Nagu and G.S. Sandhawalia, and Justice Anu Sivaraman, all judges with reputations for integrity—was made public by legal news portal The Leaflet. It concluded that Varma had 'covert or active control' over the store room and that cash had indeed been discovered there. Perhaps the most damning part of the report is its attribution of responsibility—based on what it calls 'strong inferential evidence'—to Varma's most trusted domestic staff and personal secretary. The Committee concludes that they removed the burnt cash in the dead of night, after firemen and police had left. If this conclusion is true, it exposes an attempt to obstruct evidence from within the judge's own circle. Even if the judge is innocent of not owning the money, an attempt at cover-up by his staff, irrespective of whether it was at his behest or not, is utterly foolish and deserving of impeachment of their boss. The three-member Committee saw this cleanup operation as a strong indication of consciousness of guilt. Also Read | Habeas corpus law: A sorry decline In view of these findings, it recommended that proceedings for his removal be initiated. The report rejected Varma's explanation that the store room was a 'porous space' accessible to outsiders, based on witness testimonies that only specific persons from Varma's staff could access the store room which was otherwise locked and padlocked. What was termed 'unnatural conduct' by the Committee was that Varma did not inspect the store room premises immediately after he returned to Delhi the next day, or report the alleged conspiracy to judicial or police authorities. 'A natural reaction of any person would be on arrival to first inspect the site to assess the damage, even if only household articles had been damaged and no person was hurt in the fire incident', the report stated, drawing an 'adverse inference' against Varma for this. Such behaviour undermined his claims of innocence. In short, the report answered three questions: Was the cash there? Yes. Did the judge and his household control the store room? Yes. Has the judge offered any reasonable explanation for the cash being there? No. So, whose cash it was is still unknown. Three possible theories Even as the report establishes moral culpability—enough to warrant a judge's impeachment—it does raise larger concerns. In my opinion, we are left with three possible theories: Each raising serious questions about the judge, the system, or both. The first theory is that the money was Varma's. For whatever reason—stupidity, arrogance, or something worse—he kept piles of cash inside the store room of his official residence. The key question then is: what was this cash for? Was it linked to any orders he passed? Some quid pro quo for favours from the bench? Or was it simply unaccounted money set aside for a property deal, in a real estate market where black money still drives most transactions? If it is for the former, Varma ought to be labelled corrupt, impeached, and criminally prosecuted. If it was for the latter, he still deserves to be removed—on grounds of judicial morality and ethics. Not just for lying to the Committee, but for failing to uphold the dignity and standards expected of a high Constitutional office. The Committee itself makes this argument. It says that whether the stashing of cash happened with or without Varma's consent is secondary. What matters is that a sitting judge could not explain the presence of deeply suspicious material on his premises. That alone amounts to a breach of public trust. This kind of moral framing does remind us that the judiciary's legitimacy rests as much on appearances as on outcomes. Given Varma's reputation in judicial circles—a former tax lawyer known for his intellect—it is hard to believe he would stash his own black money in an outhouse store room, instead of hiding it under his bed or parking it with trusted relatives. But then, people have been known to act in ways that defy even their own intelligence. Also Read | We need a judicial complaints commission: Prashant Bhushan The second theory is that the money wasn't his: That he was storing it for someone else. That's still a serious lapse. A judge who turns his house into a storage site for unaccounted or suspicious money—even if it's not his—has crossed a line. Or, it may be more about self-preservation: Varma may be scared to name the person. In this scenario, the issue is bigger than one judge's complicity. It is about a judiciary vulnerable to influence, where judges fear revealing the truth. He may not be guilty of corruption in the strict legal sense, but he's definitely guilty of being open to blackmail, which is just as dangerous. If this is the truth, and he still refuses to resign—for fear it would look like an admission of guilt of corruption—then the burden is on him to come clean. He should say whose money it was, or at least name who he suspects. If he's protecting someone more powerful and is willing to be impeached, definitely, the stakes are higher. And that, in itself, is a problem. In any case, if Varma can't reveal the truth for his own sake, or for the integrity of the office he holds, it's unreasonable to expect sympathy from anyone else. And a judge amenable to such blackmail cannot continue sitting on the bench. That Varma had no idea about the money is the third theory: That it was planted while he was away from Delhi. In that case, the focus is also on the system. Why was the CCTV footage not sealed after the incident was reported to the higher-ups? Why has no FIR been filed by the police even now? Why didn't Varma himself file one? If he really believes someone framed him, his inaction does not make sense. And if the system also failed to protect or investigate, it raises bigger questions. Nothing stops the police from seeking the CJI's sanction for filing an FIR against Varma. Also Read | In Mahmudabad's case, we see judicial choking of free thought In any case, given the Committee's findings that his own staff removed burnt cash secretly, the case still warrants his removal, on grounds of judicial ethics and breach of institutional morality. All three theories ultimately point to one outcome: Varma's removal from office. But only the first justifies impeachment strictly on grounds of corruption. For Varma, if there's a face-saving option left, it is to ensure that impeachment is not for being 'corrupt'. Problems with the process The In-House mechanism also hasn't inspired confidence. Instead of clarity, we're left with smoke, silence, and speculation. And in that fog, trust in the judiciary burns a little more. For more than two decades, the Indian judiciary has relied on this informal, extra-Constitutional process to discipline judges. Born from the Supreme Court's 1995 ruling in C. Ravichandran Iyer v A.M. Bhattacharjee, it was meant to fill the 'yawning gap' between 'proven misbehaviour' (the threshold to be met for impeachment) and ethical lapses, as not all actions deserve impeachment, a politically fraught and cumbersome process. The ruling was formalised in 1999, but over time, its shortcomings have become glaring. Judges rarely resign when found to be at fault. If they refuse to step down, the CJI typically writes to the President and Prime Minister seeking removal under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, which lays down the process of impeachment. This raises more institutional concerns. Once the CJI recommends removal, the Parliamentary inquiry that follows risks becoming a mere formality: The matter has already been prejudged. Moreover, the CJI also recommends the name of a Supreme Court judge to sit on the Parliament's Inquiry Committee, by convention. Can this judge truly go against their Chief Justice's opinion? The appearance of neutrality is suspect. Even if the Parliament formally says it will not consider the In-House report—as in the Justice S.K. Gangele's case—the long delay in initiating such a Parliamentary inquiry and the gaps already found by the In-House Committee in a guilty judge's defence gives a lot of time to such a judge to re-think and re-calibrate their defence, even manipulate evidence. For an innocent judge, it could prejudice public opinion. Either way, the system fails. More importantly, the In-House process is opaque and non-adversarial. There is no provision for cross-examination. The judge isn't entitled to legal representation. The Committee itself acknowledges that it's merely a fact-finding body, not a tribunal of record. Bound neither by rules of evidence nor due process, its goal is to assess whether a prima-facie case exists. This opacity breeds suspicion. The Supreme Court's initial decision to release preliminary material was bold: But the final report was leaked, not shared officially. Who leaked it? Why? These questions deserve reflection. The ad-hoc nature of the entire process to deal with a scandal or a complaint against a judge is among the most troubling aspects of the current system. For instance, the CCTV footage. The Committee notes that Varma could have preserved the footage from the camera pointed at the store room door to support his claim that the area was accessible to others and that a conspiracy was afoot. But that footage was sealed only on March 25, 10 days after the fire, and only when the Committee visited the premises for a spot inspection. Now, flip the question: If the CJI could direct the seizure of mobile phones belonging to Varma's staff—as the report notes—why didn't he also order the immediate sealing of the CCTV footage from the same area? If preserving digital evidence was within his power in one case, why not in the other? In cases such as these, the failure to have a codified, automatic mechanism to preserve evidence undermines the process to justice. The Delhi Police failing to file a panchnama and seize the cash, given the 'sensitivity' of the case, added to this mess. What's the way forward? This episode shows that internal oversight must be reformed—not in response to outrage, but to restore trust. Disciplinary inquiries must trigger deeper institutional change. We need an independent oversight body, a codified procedure, a robust ethics code, and a time-bound, transparent process. Recent steps—such as the CJI's release of Delhi High Court's preliminary report—are good but isolated and one person-driven. Unless institutionalised, they remain one-offs. The use of digital evidence and remote testimonies is a start, but must be embedded into rules. The government seems eager to push ahead with Varma's impeachment, perhaps to create an example. Some reports even suggest that it may try to bypass the mandated step of setting up an Inquiry Committee after the impeachment motion is admitted. That would be blatantly unconstitutional. The government, i.e. the Executive, appears to be under the mistaken impression that it can dictate the process. The removal of a judge falls squarely within the domain of Parliament. The Judges Inquiry Act makes no allowance for skipping the Inquiry Committee stage. At the same time, the judiciary's stubborn resistance to institutional reform only feeds fodder to its most hostile critics. Take, for example, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who has made it a habit of attacking the judiciary—particularly the Supreme Court—on one issue or another, often sounding like a broken record. His repeated, delusional claims about India being a country where 'Parliament is supreme'—when in fact India is a country where the Constitution is supreme and the judiciary interprets the Constitution—betrays wilful distortion. His political commentary—despite holding a Constitutional office that demands neutrality—only chips away at its dignity and exposes the hypocrisy in his tirades against the Supreme Court. In any case, the Justice Varma affair is not just about one man. It is about institutional decay. About what happens when systems built on trust lose their moral compass. Will sunlight disinfect? Or will we keep fighting fire with fog? The store room at 30 Tughlaq Crescent is now empty. But the smoke it emitted still engulfs the Indian judiciary. And perhaps it should—until the system it exposed is cleansed, not just with light, but with a codified, transparent rule. Saurav Das is an investigative journalist writing on law, judiciary, crime, and policy.
The Print
44 minutes ago
- The Print
Karnataka's bills on misinformation & hate speech to be reviewed as Siddaramaiah faces rising heat
'The bills were drafted very badly and neither has been cleared by the Department of Home nor IT (information technology). The bills will definitely happen but not in their current form. The bill needs a lot more reiterations,' said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity. The proposed bills—The Karnataka Misinformation and Fake News (Prohibition) Bill 2025 and The Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention and Control) Bill 2025—will be sent to various departments for consultations before they are presented before the cabinet. Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to review two bills aimed at curbing the spread of misinformation and hate speech following widespread criticism from opposition parties and civil society, according to two people aware of the developments. Priyank Kharge, Karnataka's minister for IT/BT, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, told ThePrint the draft bills had not been placed before the cabinet. 'There will be due consultations from the home department and the IT/BT department,' Kharge told ThePrint. The proposed bills add to the growing pressure on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, whose 2-year administration has been facing a steady stream of challenges, making it harder for the 76-yr-old to navigate the rest of his term. The challenges include growing allegations of corruption, rebellion within the Congress ranks over issues like the release of a fresh caste census as it reduces the perceived population size of dominant communities like Vokkaligas and Lingayats and the withholding of development funds. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached nearly Rs 100 crore worth of property of Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) linked to Siddaramaiah. And in the last 2 days, two senior Congress legislators and close aides of Siddaramaiah have levelled charges of corruption against the Congress government. Raju Kage, a four-time MLA from Kagwad, Monday threatened to resign as the government had failed to release any funds promised 2 years ago. 'The administration has completely failed in Karnataka. I am hurt and leaning towards resigning (as MLA). If I meet the CM in two days and resign, it won't be a surprise,' Kage told reporters Monday. On Sunday, Siddaramaiah's former political advisor, B.R. Patil, alleged that bribes were being demanded for allotment of houses through Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation Ltd. Also read: Siddaramaiah cites 1995 law to justify Congress high command's decision to scrap 2015 caste survey 'No posts on anti-feminism, superstition' The draft bills, discussed in the state cabinet last week, prohibit the spreading of any information the government deems 'fake', 'abusive' or 'obscene' on social media platforms. This includes content considered 'anti-feminism' or an 'insult to the dignity of the female'. The bills also prohibit the publication of content promoting superstition. The draft bill proposes to ensure that content on topics such as science, history, religion, philosophy and literature posted on social media is based on authentic research. Violations could lead to imprisonment of up to 7 years, fines of up to Rs 10 lakh or both. One provision prohibits the 'publication of content amounting to disrespect of Sanatan', which critics said would be used to curb criticism of caste. 'The Karnataka government is going to bring a bill that will send you to jail if you disrespect Sanatan Dharma. Caste is an important part of Sanatan. So, from now on, if you criticise the caste system, will you go to jail? Stop this bill. Organise a public consultation on how to fight fake news,' Vinay Sreenivasa, an advocate and activist posted on X. ಸನಾತನ ಧರ್ಮ ವನ್ನು ಅಗೌರವ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಜೈಲಿಗೆ ಹೋಗುವ ಮಸೂದೆ ತರಲು ಹೊರಟಿದೆ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಸರ್ಕಾರ. ಜಾತಿ ಸನಾತನದ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಭಾಗ. ಇನ್ಮುಂದೆ ಜಾತಿ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ ಟೀಕಿಸಿದರೆ ಜೈಲೇ ಗತಿನ ? Stop this bill. organise a public consultation on how to fight fake news @PriyankKharge@HateSpeechBeda @ShivasundarShi1 — ವಿನಯ್ ಕೂರಗಾಯಲ ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ Vinay K S (@vinaysreeni) June 22, 2025 'Misinformation combat cell' The original plan to regulate misinformation was announced soon after the Congress came to power in 2023. The government then proposed setting up a committee to fact-check social media platforms and news outlets disseminating misinformation with malicious intent. The committee would include an ADGP-rank officer, an additional advocate general, government officials and even members of civil society to weed out any misinformation online and to ascertain the intent, if any, behind the sharing of any information. At the time, Karnataka's Information Technology minister, Priyank Kharge loosely termed it as 'misinformation combat cell'. The Editors Guild of India had also raised a red flag on the proposed fact-check unit. 'While admittedly there is a problem of misinformation and fake news, especially in the online space, efforts to check such content have to be by independent bodies that are not under the sole purview of the government, lest they become tools to clamp down on voices of dissent,' the guild wrote in a letter in August 2023. The Congress has filed cases against BJP national president J.P. Nadda, the party's IT cell chief, Amit Malviya and state president B.Y. Vijayendra in May last year for posting an animated video of the Congress allegedly favouring Muslims. Earlier this year, the Congress filed another case against Malviya and news anchor Arnab Goswami over their claims that the Congress had built massive offices in Turkey. Two years on, the proposal to curb fake news came out in the form of a draft bill. But this time it was under the Kannada and Culture department and not the IT/BT or even the home ministry. One person said that it was a possible 'administrative error' to let the Kannada and culture department helm this proposal. 'The leaked bill is very different from what the IT department had originally proposed,' the person cited above said, requesting anonymity. 'Consultations on' On Monday, the BJP held protests against the Siddaramaiah government across the state. The party's state president, Vijayendra, said the government had delivered a big 'zero' on governance, development and work orders. 'The rot in Karnataka under @siddaramaiah's government runs so deep that even Congress MLAs are now threatening to resign! Earlier, Congress MLAs like K Shadakshari, Basavaraj Shivganga, Basavaraj Rayareddi, and BR Patil raised their voices. Now, Kagwad MLA Raju Kage threatens to quit after waiting 2 long years for work orders on ₹25 Cr of sanctioned development funds. When even Congress MLAs are helpless, imagine the plight of Opposition MLAs trying to serve their people under this corrupt, paralyzed regime…' he said in a post on X, calling for Siddaramaiah's resignation. ZERO governance. ZERO development. ZERO work orders. The rot in Karnataka under @siddaramaiah's government runs so deep that even Congress MLAs are now threatening to resign! Earlier, Congress MLAs like K Shadakshari, Basavaraj Shivganga, Basavaraj Rayareddi, and BR Patil… — Vijayendra Yediyurappa (@BYVijayendra) June 23, 2025 The chief minister dismissed the allegations of corruption against his government. 'I will speak to him,' Siddaramaiah told reporters in Raichur on Monday, referring to threats of resignation made by Kage. Siddaramaiah has been fighting several battles and most of them are from within his own party. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has been pushing to replace Siddaramaiah, forcing the party high command to keep its promise of giving the two leaders turns in the top chair. Siddaramaiah faced a setback when the party high command asked him to conduct a fresh caste census, which took away any advantage he had against Shivakumar or other members of his cabinet who openly called for the scrapping of the 2015 survey. The cabinet has also shelved, at least for now, a proposal to bring a crowd management bill after the Chinnaswamy stadium stampede. The government has also come under criticism for proposing a Rs 17,700 crore tunnel road project in Bengaluru, widely seen as a move to placate Shivakumar. The government is yet to set up the anti-communal force it promised after the brutal murder of history-sheeter and Hindutva activist Suhas Shetty in Mangaluru. This was followed by a retaliatory killing of a Muslim youngster, after which several minority leaders of the Congress quit the party in protest. (Edited by Sugita Katyal) Also read: Ex-IPS officers write to Siddaramaiah, say Bengaluru police chief & cops 'made fall guys' for stampede
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Gurgaon Metro project: 2019 plan, 2029 reality? How delays pushed back timeline; phase-1 stalled & no contractor yet
GURGAON: Dharam Vir Sagar , who has lived in Sector 4 since 1971, saw the city grow "in a way I never imagined". But this was, he says, an anomalous growth that is yet to correct itself. "It happened just on one side of the highway," he says. "I saw the city's metamorphosis from a place of open fields to its current skyline. But all the change happened on one side of the highway. New and old Gurgaon became different places with the highway dividing them. The only thing that can change that is metro. But we're waiting," says Sagar, referring to the Gurgaon Metro project that has spent more than half a decade in the approval stage since its first proper route map (and DPR, or detailed project report) was drawn up in 2019. Old, new & the gap Connecting new and old Gurgaon and bridging the 'gap' that Sagar, who is in his 80s, speaks about, the corridor beginning from Millennium City Centre, crossing the highway and cutting an arc through old Gurgaon before crossing the highway again to terminate at Cyber City, will solve much of Gurgaon's connectivity problems and reduce the current, unsustainable dependence on cars. But when will it take shape? Prolonged starting pangs means that's a hard timeline to predict. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Memperdagangkan CFD Emas dengan salah satu spread terendah? IC Markets Mendaftar Undo The most optimistic one is mid-2029, practically the end of this decade. The delays, for a project that should have got top priority from the state and Centre, because of the city's rapid expansion, its criticality to the Delhi-NCR economy, and increasing struggles with local commute, are perplexing for Sagar. "In the 80s, we would catch a local train and be in Old Delhi within an hour. Now, it takes more than two hours from here by car," he says. And for lakhs of people, car translates into a cab. If one is living in new sectors near Dwarka Expressway, the nearest metro is City Centre, which is an expensive cab ride. A corridor of solutions Solutions, therefore, rest heavily on Gurgaon Metro, the 28-station corridor that has been carefully planned to link busy areas, residential hubs of future, and connectivity blind spots. Four years after the state drew up the DPR and alignment, the project received the all-important Public Investment Board (PIB) clearance from the Centre in Nov 2022 and Cabinet approval in June 2023. The 28.5km corridor - along with a 1.8km spur to Dwarka Expressway - is to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 10,226 crore and has a construction timeline of four years. It was originally planned as a fully elevated line with 27 stations. Later, a 1.4km extension was added to connect Sector 5 station with Gurgaon railway station, taking the total length to 29.9km and the number of stations to 28. A large section of this corridor caters to congested parts of the old city, which have a wide mobility gap with the newer half of the city on the other side of the expressway. The city was connected to Delhi through the Yellow Line in 2010 when the 5.3km city section opened. Since then, the only addition to the metro network has been the 11.7km Rapid Metro line that runs Golf Course Road, with a loop to Cyber City from Sikanderpur. To newer parts of the city and new sectors along Southern Peripheral Road, Rapid Metro offered some relief since the corridor was completed in 2017. But the old city remained disconnected. What caused the delay In the two years since the Cabinet nod, however, nothing has moved on the ground. Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL), the special purpose vehicle for the project was set up as 50:50 joint venture between the state and Centre only in Feb 2024. Key leadership positions, including director (projects & planning) and director (rolling stock & electrical), remained vacant till Feb 2025, even though recruitment notices were issued in July 2024. A senior GMRL officer said such initial challenges happen with any new organisation. "Setting up a new entity takes time. Statutory approvals, hiring leadership, and creating working infrastructure are time-consuming," the officer said. Beyond the organisational setup, appointment of the Detailed Design Consultant (DDC) - a prerequisite for civil works - faced repeated setbacks. Tenders for hiring a DDC were floated in Aug 2022, March and May 2023, and July 2024. While participation was low, the last round saw only one bidder. The bid was accepted, but the appointment got delayed because of the model code of conduct for the assembly polls. A tender for appointing another DDC - to proof-check structural and civil designs - was floated in Dec 2024. That saw no response. The bid was reissued in Feb 2025, but there has been no progress since. Appointment of a General Consultant (GC), the body that will oversee construction and quality control, is yet to happen. Though eight bids were received, evaluation is still on. Tenders for Phase 1 civil construction - covering a 15.2km viaduct, 14 elevated stations, and a spur to Dwarka Expressway - haven't moved beyond the evaluation stage. The original deadline for bidding was April 22 this year. But after GMRL decided to include construction of the Bakhtawar Chowk underpass in its scope of work, the deadline was extended to May 15. Eight firms submitted bids, which are being reviewed. Progress is slower for Phase 2. GMRL floated a tender for geotechnical surveys only in May 2025. At the moment, the four-year construction timeline doesn't look like a realistic one. If work does manage to begin for the first phase by year-end, sources said they expect the 15-station stretch to be commissioned by the end of 2028. A wait too long For those like Rakhi Sahu, a Ramprastha City resident for seven years, the wait seems interminable. "Development reached our gates, but not metro. At present, it takes at least 45 minutes to reach Millenium City Centre from my society. Buses have negligible presence. Delhi Metro completely transformed how people commute in the capital. A similar transition is long overdue for Gurgaon," Sahu said. Brig Sukhbir Singh (retd), vice-president of Palam Vihar RWA, wondered why govt did not just give DMRC the job of building the new corridor. "Creating a whole new agency instead of using experienced ones like DMRC is a mistake. Work on Phase 1 hasn't even started. Who knows how long Phase 2 will take? Metro connectivity for older parts of Gurgaon has been pending for long, and road congestion is only getting worse. It's high time govt prioritised mass transit," Singh said. Officials insist that while delays have occurred, the project is now moving in the right direction. "These are background planning and processes may not be visible to the public, but they are essential to avoid mistakes during construction," a senior GMRL officer said. Officials said the process for Phase 2 would also move quickly and they expect it to be completed by mid-2029. In Dec 2024, chief minister Nayab Singh Saini had promised that construction would begin on May 1. With a concessionaire yet to be appointed for Phase-1, that is still months away. More time this takes, more it will test the mid-2029 timeline.
