Ground work on the metro line to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport is set to begin after Diwali. Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) has awarded the civil construction contract for the roughly 6 km Phase-2A corridor at Rs 859.25 crore, about 2.28 per cent below its estimate of Rs 879.27 crore, GSTV and Gujarat Samachar reported on October 26. Neither report names the winning bidder. Both say utility shifting along the route is nearly finished.
Four elevated stops, then a tunnel to the terminals
The line branches off the Yellow Line at Koteshwar Road, the north-south route from Motera that has run all the way to Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar since January. From there it runs 4.97 km on an elevated viaduct through four stations: Ashram Road, Koteshwar Prachin Mandir, Sabarmati River and Sardar Nagar. The last 1.01 km drops underground to a single airport station, which the reports say will connect to Terminals 1 and 2 by lifts, escalators and stairs.
For travellers that last detail matters most. Reaching the airport now means a cab, an auto or a private car. A station at the terminals would let Yellow Line riders from Motera, Koba or Gandhinagar reach a flight with one change of train at Koteshwar Road.
Rs 859 crore covers about two-fifths of the approved cost
The Union Cabinet cleared Phase-2A on June 10 at a total completion cost of Rs 2,169.04 crore, including interest during construction, according to the PIB release on the decision. That approval put the corridor at 6.032 km with five stations, and said the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar network would reach 77.63 km once it opens. The civil package awarded now accounts for roughly 40 per cent of that sanctioned figure.
GMRC moved quickly after the Cabinet nod. It floated the civil tender in August with a September 28 bid deadline and a 36-month completion period, Biginfo reported at the time. The award came less than a month after bids closed.
A 36-month clock and the 2030 Commonwealth Games
If the contractor starts in November and holds to the tender’s 36 months, civil work would finish around late 2029. That is our arithmetic, not an official date; GMRC has not announced an opening target, and tracks, signalling and trial runs still follow civil work on any metro line.
The timing lines up closely with Ahmedabad’s hosting of the 2030 Commonwealth Games, for which the Centre has already committed Rs 2,000 crore. Visiting teams and spectators would land at the same airport this line serves. The airport branch also runs alongside GMRC’s larger Phase 3 plans, which went to tender this month as seven packages covering 58.5 km.
Sources: GSTV, Gujarat Samachar, PIB (Cabinet approval, June 10, 2026), Biginfo
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.