The Union Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar has announced that the 12-km long stretch of first and second phases of the Pune Metro Rail Project will be completed by March 2020. He also informed that the foundation stone for Hinjawadi Line will also be laid by next month.
“The initial process for the Hinjewadi Metro line has been completed while the land transfer process is expected to be done by the end of March,” the minister said.
Javdekar also expressed confidence that all three lines of the Pune Metro project would be completed by 2022.
Earlier last year, the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MahaMetro) has announced that it will complete the 12-km stretch — comprising 7 km on Line 1 from Pimpri to Swargate and a 5 km stretch on the Vanaz-Ramwadi Line 2 – by the end of December 2019.
Javdekar reviewed the progress of Pune Metro Rail Project, Mutha River Rejuvenation Project and the implementation of Mid Day Meal Scheme at a meeting of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) held in Pune last week. Javedekar is the Chairperson of the committee.
Spanning 32.5-km, the Pune metro system includes overground and underground rail tracks with 30 stations. Construction work on two Metro corridors in Pune – Line 1 from PCMC to Swargate (16.58 km) and Line 2 Vanaz to Ramwadi (14.66 km) – is also currently underway. The East-West Line 1 costing Rs 7,628 crore is expected to be ready by 2022, while the North-South Line 2 costing Rs 3,894 crore is scheduled for completion in 2021.
The Pune Metro corridor has been divided into four ridges. Of this, the 5km-long route between Shivajinagar and Swargate will be underground.
A 23-km long third metro line in Pune between Hinjewadi and Shivajinagar, connecting the bustling information technology (IT) hub with the crowded Shivajinagar, is currently underway at a cost Rs 8,313 crores. The metro project is being implemented by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMDRA) on a public-private partnership basis.
The third line comprises of 23 stations between Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar and was the first Metro based on a public-private partnership (PPP) after the new Metro policy was rolled out by the Union government in 2016. The construction commenced by June 2019 and is expected to be completed in three years.
Earlier this month, the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Union’s (EU) lending institution, agreed to invest around Rs 4,800 crore in the Pune Metro project in the Indian state of Maharashtra. EU has agreed to lend a total of Rs 4,800 crore for the project in three tranches at an interest rate of 0.35%.