MoF’s Public Investment Board Approves Pune Metro Project
Pune’s long delayed 31.25 km metro project crossed a major hurdle yesterday with the Union Finance Ministry’s Public Investment Board approving the project’s Rs 12,298 crore cost and funding plan. Following this, the proposal will now be sent to the Union Cabinet for its final approval.
The project was originally estimated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to cost Rs 7,984 crore in 2009, but it has underwent multiple revisions owing to government delays, red tape and opposition from NGOs. As per the approved funding plan, roughly 50% of the project will be funded by two loans co-financed by the World Bank (WB) & the Asian Infrastructure Investments Bank (AIIB), 20% each will come from the Centre & State governments while the rest 10% will be contributed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) & Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).
Pune’s Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar had this to say:
The PIB has recommended the proposal of Pune Metro rail to the Union Cabinet. There has been no conditions attached for it but some suggestions have been made that have been incorporated.
Anil Shirole, the MP from Pune added:
The Metro is an important issue for the city. PIB has approved Pune metro rail project in a meeting held at Delhi. We are expecting final approval from union government very soon. This will help to speed up the project and will be a major growth engine for Pune’s development
Post approval photo op – Photo Copyright: Maha Info Centre
Details on Pune’s Metro project can be found on its information page. To recap, 2 lines have been planned in its first phase:
Line 1 – Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation – Swargate: 16.589 km with 15 stations
Elevated: PCMC – Shivaji Nagar: 11.570 km, 9 stations
Underground: Shivaji Nagar – Swargate: 5.019 km, 6 stations
Line 2 – Vanaz – Ramwadi – 14.665 km with 16 stations
Type: Elevated
Pune Metro Map – view Pune Metro informaton
Last month, the project crossed another hurdle when the Bombay High Court (HC) disposed off a case which had raised objections about the project adversely affecting nearby national monuments. Now it just has to get an approval from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which has scheduled a hearing on October 27 (see why) following which the union cabinet will take a final decision.
For more updates, check out the Pune section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
That’s great news, Maharashtra is slipping back in public infrastructure initiatives as compared to other states. This should have been approved long back, too much delays.
Agreed! Barring some projects in Mumbai, 2005-2015 was such a slow, painful and tragic decade – a complete let down for the state.
Pune roads are quite wide(except old city) , they should infact plan to connect wakad and hinjewadi with rest of city, which face bigger jams and will draw huge amount of patronage if metro is run.
This alignment which does not provide connectivity to western pune IT hub Hinjewadi or the eastern Pune office districts kharadi, magarpatta,etc. may not serve the desired objectives.
If funds were readily available, then I’m sure they would have connected those areas from the start. For now, they’re just following the DMRC’s model of connecting old and established transit centers, markets and built up areas.
With Pune’s metro now given a green light, which is the largest city in India remaining without a metro approved or underway?
And which is the smallest city with a metro approved or underway?
– Largest pending would be Surat, but not for very long as a DPR for its metro is being prepared and will be presented to the Gujarat govt for its approval in 2017- see this post for images of geotechnical investigation being carried out.
– Smallest city with a metro approved by the state govt would be Kozhikode.
Thanks, TMRG.
P.
The eternal fact-checker [me] looked up Kozhikode metro area and found it [per 1911 census, GOI] to be twice the size of Guwahati’s 1 million. So wouldn’t Guwahati be the smallest? Or maybe its metro plans are not yet approved?
As per the 2011 census, Guwahati has a population of 963,429 and Kozhikode has 432,097. The figure for each city’s metropolitan area (city+suburbs) would be a little higher.