Tata-Siemens Begins Piling for Pune Metro’s Line-3
Workers from Pune IT City Metro Rail Ltd. have finally started piling work, the first step of construction, for Pune Metro’s new 23.3 km Line-3 which’ll connect Megapolis Circle in Hinjawadi with Civil Court in Shivajinagar through 23 elevated stations.
The contract for building and operating this line on the public-private partnership (PPP) model was awarded by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) to a consortium of TRIL Urban Transport (a Tata Group company) and Siemens Project Ventures back on October 3, 2018.
The consortium went on to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle company called Pune IT City Metro Rail Limited in March 2019, and then signed a 35 year concession agreement with PMRDA in September 2019 with a deadline to start operations in March 2023 – something which I do not foresee them meeting.
Geotechnical investigation on this line, nicknamed Puneri Metro, had commenced in June 2019, paused due to the COVID-19 related lock down in March, and then resumed in May 2020.
This week, a piling rig was spotted near Hinjawadi Circle by Twitter follower Devesh Shah who runs a YouTube channel on infrastructure developments in Pune. His video with the piling rig in action can be viewed here.
Earlier this month, the Maharashtra government approved the transfer of 7.14 hectares from the Dairy Development Department to setup a casting yard in Shivajinagar. That said, land for the line’s train maintenance depot (carshed) at Maan Village, south of Megapolis Circle, has still not been acquired from private land owners.
For more updates, check out the Pune section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Do you have any news about when the Concessionaire plans to achieve financial closure, without which I doubt any mobilisation?
Being a PPP project, it’s going to be tough to find that out. We’ll have to wait for either a curious journalist reaching out to them or them voluntarily disclosing it, which I’d imagine would have happen only after closure.
It’s a very large project. The financial closure will get announced with fanfare. My sense is this is delayed and may happen by June 21.
Hi TMRG,
1. When will the first stretch of Pune Metro going to be operational? Union minister Javadekar announced in Feb that a 12-km stretch would be operational by March.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/12-km-pune-metro-stretch-to-be-operational-next-month-javadekar/article30825361.ece
Lockdown had shelved the planned opening then; but any news on latest opening date? Will it be commissioned in 2020? Has CRMS inspection been done (or planned)?
2. What’s the status of Navi Mumbai Metro? Can it get commissioned this year?
Hi, in Pune – there’s far too much civil work pending on that 12 km stretch. There are multiple gaps in the viaduct as seen in MahaMetro’s drone videos. They prioritized the northern section, but the depot at Range Hills is at its southern-end without which ops cannot begin.
They also don’t have trains to run a respectable high frequency service. 2 have been borrowed from Nagpur. That’s all they have. Right now, the first set from Titagarh is scheduled to arrive sometime in Q3 2021. I see this line opening only around mid-2022.
In Navi Mumbai, station finishing and system works are ongoing. If they want, it can be commissioned by 2021-end, but the MH government, across party lines, has never been interested in fast-tracking works. Some recent snaps can be viewed here: https://twitter.com/Amar_Shinde527/status/1330768861029822465
Any plans to connect industrial town of Chakan? Many factories located with thousands of workers commute from city. Travel by road is hellish. The line can come and join somewhere near Nashik Phata/Kasarwadi for the other North – South line under execution.
I am interested for execution of this project can you help me H.R CONTACT OR Email
Any EPC Contractors awarded??