After the successful trial run on the 6 km stretch from Pimpri Chinchwad to Phugewadi, the Pune metro rail is reasonably to get moving on Vanaz to Garware college stretch on Karve road in the coming two months.
Brijesh Dixit, the Managing Director of Maha-Metro declares “the aim is to start the commercial operations of Pune metro rail in 2021 but the exact date cannot be decided now.”
He explained the pandemic has affected the delay in the ongoing work of the Pune metro rail. In the Managing Directors words, “there has been no significant cost increase of the project works but time-wise delay had taken place.”
He adds, “The phase one of Pune metro rail is of 31 km and trial run is going on in the 6 km stretch now. Two stations on the stretch from PCMC to Phuegwadi are nearing completion.” The Pune metro will get its coaches by May and till that time the coaches received from Nagpur metro would be utilized for trial runs.
On the opinion to explore Metro-Neo from Swargate to Katraj, Dixit told that the Maha-Metro has received communication from PMC over examining Metro-Neo in the city. “The union government has accepted the Metro neo as the national model. It has low ridership and cost-effective solution of mass transport to cater to the less populated area,” he proclaimed adding the buses can commute 4,000 citizens per hour while metro rail has the capacity of 20,000 per hour and there was nothing for the middle mark of commuters.
Cities across the planet use various modes of mass transport for less populated areas and they include Tram, light metro, or trolley service. He said, “ The Metro Neo is cost-effective with the one-fourth cost of metro rail and has the capacity to transport 10,000-12,000 persons in an hour.”
However, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the same would be prepared solely after the state government’s directions. He concludes, “It will be the state government that will make a decision on whether to opt for Metro-Neo in the city for mass transport in a certain stretch of the proposed metro rail route.”
