Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who Saturday travelled by Pune Metro from Ruby Hall Clinic to Vanaz and back, instructed MahaMetro officials to further strengthen the service. The MahaMetro, which is implementing the Pune Metro project, on its part, has said it would soon start its service at 6 am for the convenience of college-goers and long-distance commuters who rely on Pune railway station and Shivajinagar stations.
Currently, the Pune Metro runs from 7 am to 10 pm.
“Commuters are demanding that Pune Metro should be run from 6 am so that they can reach their destination at the appropriate time…The MahaMetro should take all steps to strengthen its network..,” the Deputy Chief Minister said while interacting with reporters on board the Metro train.
Shravan Hardikar, chairman and managing director MahaMetro, told The Indian Express that there has been a demand from commuters to start service from 6 am and hence they are mulling over an early morning start.
“Commuters who have to catch long-distance trains from Pune railway station and students whose colleges start early morning are demanding that our service should start around 6 am. We have already studied his aspect and soon we will start our service around 6 am,” he said.
Hardikar said last week on Saturday and Sunday, over 1.50 lakh commuters had travelled by Pune Metro service on both the routes — Pimpri to Shivajinagar Civil Court and Vanaz to Ruby Hall Clinic.
“After that in the last four-five days, around 38,000 commuters have travelled every day on both the routes. And this figure is going to shoot up further in the coming days,” he said.
Prof Kiran Khajekar, a retired faculty of a city college, said that most of the colleges in Pune city start at 7.20 am.
