Have Pune Lost Steam In The Metro Race

It has been more than five years since Pune Metro was incepted in the city. During that period, Kochi was discussing about implementing mass transport facilities in the city. At present, while the Pune metro still remains largely on paper, Kochi has moved on the fast track. The Central government has granted a metro to the city of Kochi, and the same is expected to be open to the public by mid-2016.

Pune is a city with a threshold of realizing the advantages of having a metro rail system. However, unnecessary disputes and arguments over the same have led to the delay in its launch.

Causes of delay in launching

The Pune Metro Rail Project was drafted under the guidance of Mr. E.Sreedhran, in 2009. It was estimated that the project would be completed by 2014. However, oppositions from political parties and NGOs, lead to delay of work. To add fuel to the fire, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations kept arguing about the costs involved. At present, the project needs a financial restructuring which is blended with complete discipline, values and work culture, in order to be completed successfully.

Need for the project

Pune is one of the fastest developing cities in the country. The city is witnessing a high growth of population owing to factors like excellent educational opportunities, favourable climatic conditions, proximity to Mumbai etc. The city would soon prove incapable of managing the traffic and the transportation requirements of the public. It would eventually lead to the increase in costs of goods and services. Implementing the metro rail project can help change the scenario, considerably.

Features of Pune Metro Station

While drafting the metro rail project, it was planned that a few sections would be constructed underground and the rest, elevated. However, the plan was dropped considering the increased traffic on the roads. Some roads in the city were too narrow to even adjust the pillars of elevated routes. Hence, the authority decided that all the routes covered under the project would be constructed underground. Nevertheless, in April 2012, Pune Municipal Corporation announced that the construction would be according to DMRC reports, that is, mostly elevated and partially underground.

According to the metro plan, the project consists of 2 phases. Phase I would consist of Line 1 and Line 2, which runs from Chinchwad to Swargate and Vanaz to Ramwadi, respectively. Phase II would include Line 3 and Line 4 routes, which would be from Deccan Gymkhana to Bund Garden and from ASI to Hinjawadi, respectively. Line 1 would cover an area of about 16 km and Line 2, about 15km. Line 3 and line 4 would cover a distance of 11km and 18 km respectively.

As part of future expansion, the following extensions and routes have been proposed :

1. Link from Bhosari to Moshi to link with Moshi-Chakan-new Pune international airport metro line.
2. Extension from Race Course to Hadapsar
3. Extension from Bund Garden to Vishrantwadi 4. Agriculture college- Warje via JM road and Karve road (9km)