The Pune Municipal Corporation and Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited have proposed hiring 300 buses to provide feeder service for Pune Metro commuters.
As the city’s population has displayed a positive trajectory in using Maharashtra’s Pune Metro, the growing network and demand has prompted authorities to prioritise supporting facilities for the transit system.
In line with this, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) have proposed hiring 300 buses to provide feeder service for Pune Metro commuters.
This initiative comes as the ridership has increased on several routes — including Garware College to Ruby Hall Clinic, Phugewadi to Civil Court, Vanaz to Ruby Hall Clinic, and PCMC to Vanaz.
As the city struggles with the shortage of parking facilities in proximity to various busy metro stations, there has arisen a requirement for a bus feeder system to enhance the last mile connectivity.
“PMC plans to utilise the Rs 300-crore fund allocated under the 15th Finance Commission to also procure buses that will help reduce pollution and benefit residents,” according to Hindustan Times report.
Recent reports also indicate that the Pune authorities are focusing on creating parking spaces around metro stations, as high number of commuters have complained of the parking issue at these stations.
A joint committee of Maha-Metro and PMC has been established under the leadership of Shrinivas Bonala, chief engineer project at PMC.
The primary objective of this committee is to locate suitable parking areas in close proximity to metro stations.
MahaMetro official said, “Now, wherever there are Metro stations, we are developing multi-modal hubs. So far, we have managed to get space at nine locations on both corridors where we are developing parking infrastructure.”
Supporting Infrastructure For The Growing Network
In a recent directive, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has instructed PMPML and Maha-Metro to initiate the feeder service. This move aims to enhance connectivity and convenience for commuters using the metro system.
Currently, close to 24 km of the total 33 km metro network, is open for public use on the two — Purple and Aqua Lines.
The 17.5-km-long Purple Line corridor is planned from PCMC to Swargate and has 14 stations.
Further, the fully elevated Aqua Line starts from Vanaz Depot in east and goes upto Ramwadi. There are a total of 16 stations on this stretch and total length of this corridor is 15.7 km.
The remaining close to 10 km of network remains under construction for these lines, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.
Apart from the existing network, a Line-3 in the city is also undertaken by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Tata-Siemens partnership.
The 23 km, fully elevated network will connect the Hinjawadi IT park and several newly-developing areas and will serve a significant number of Pune employees for daily commute.
As the Pune metro network expands, the need for supporting infrastructure also increases to ease accessibility from and to metro stations that significantly influences people’s willingness to use public transport.