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Credit Rating Agency ICRA in its latest report has said that the domestic metro rail projects will offer Rs 80,000 crore business opportunities for construction firms over the next five years. It said in India, 15 cities have operational metro networks of about 746 km (many of which are undertaking expansion), and another seven cities have under-implementation metro projects of about 640 km.

The report stated that this is apart from 1,400 km of metro rail projects worth Rs 2 trillion in the approval/proposal stages, of which a 352-km of new metro network has been approved, with the balance being in the proposal stage. It said given the government's thrust for infrastructure development, the metro rail network is likely to witness 2.7 times expansion in the next five years.

ICRA further said typically, the metro rail development cost ranges between Rs 280-320 crore/km for elevated metro and the cost could be much higher in the case of an underground metro network. It also said civil construction forms 35-45 per cent of the overall cost. It added that given the large size of the metro projects, this is likely to offer sizeable opportunities for construction companies over the next five years.