CMRS Inspects Pune Metro’s Ruby Hall – Ramwadi Section (Reach 3)

Janak Kumar Garg – the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) on Monday completed a 2-day final inspection of Pune Metro Aqua Line’s 5.94 km long Ruby Hall Clinic – Ramwadi section.

This elevated section – officially known as Reach 3 of the 31.24 km Pune Metro Phase 1 project – is the final leg of the 14.665 km Aqua Line left to open up for commercial operations. It includes four new elevated stations at Bund Garden, Yerawada, Kalyani Nagar and Ramwadi.

Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha-Metro) had started trial runs (train testing) on Reach 3’s viaduct in October 2023. The CMRS’ team began their final statutory safety inspection on this past Friday, and this is the first time I’ve observed an inspection spanning across a weekend.

The inspection involved assessing all 4 stations’ passenger amenities & control room facilities, a motor-trolley inspection of the line’s viaduct which includes a 310 meter long bridge over Mula-Mutha River near Bund Garden, and critical systems (track by Paras Railtech, signaling & electrification by Alstom) en route.

This section’s viaduct was built by J Kumar Infraprojects through a Rs. 388.58 crore contract awarded in August 2018. Stations en route were built by Afcons – SPCPL JV through a contract awarded in July 2018.

I expect the CMRS’ team to submit their approval letter latest by Wednesday afternoon.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past – approvals from the CMRS are always conditional in nature, so we’ll have to wait and see what conditions are laid out for Maha-Metro to rectify before the start of operations, how quickly remediation work is performed and a compliance report is sent back to the CMRS.

Here’s a cool video by Devesh Infra Vlogs uploaded on YouTube 11 days ago showing Reach 3’s progress from the ground. Station architectural finishing and entry/exit structure works are still underway at Yerawada, Kalyani Nagar and Ramwadi stations.

Whether these stations are completed or not, this section will definitely open up prior to the Lok Sabha elections. The opening date for commercial operations will be dictated by the availability of local and national politicians’ calendars.

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– TMRG