Mass transit cheer for Pune, Metro gets Rs. 126.58 cr.

The long wait for a metro rail in the city seems to be coming to an end. The union government has a plan outlay of Rs. 126.58 crore, equity of Rs. 70.38 crore and loans of Rs. 56.20 crore for the Pune metro rail in the 2015-16 budget.

The metro rail service for Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Vijaywada and Vizag too has been included in the expenditure budget of the union government. Nagpur metro is also on government's agenda as the plan outlay for Nagpur metro rail is estimated at Rs. 143.85 crore.

The DMRC submitted the detailed proposal for Pune metro rail in 2009 with an estimating project cost of Rs. 7,984 crore. It was revised last year to Rs. 10,183 crore. Now, the DMRC has estimated the cost to be Rs. 10,869 crore for the two routes from Swargate to Pimpri-Chinchwad and Vanaz to Ramwadi. The project had been pending for long with Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and thereafter the state government. It has been almost two years and the project has been awaiting Union government approval.

'The union government would soon approve the proposal of a Pune metro rail project. The BJP is in power in the state and at the centre. So there should not be any problem getting the project started as soon as possible,' said city MP Anil shirole.

'There should not be any shortage of funds once the work on it gets started,' he said, adding, the foundation stone of the metro rail in other cities have been laid. The project in Pune city would soon be set rolling.

He said there are various projects like smart city declared for urban areas with an overall provision of Rs. 6,000 crore through which Pune can upgrade infrastructure.


THE INDIAN EXPRESS