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

By: Express News Service | Pune | Updated: March 1, 2015 2:39 am

Pune, 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.

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“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 city MP said the budget is a path for overall progress of the country,” he said adding that various schemes and projects would generate employment, alleviate poverty and ensure corruption-free governance.

The plan to create two crore houses in urban area has raised hopes of the city to resolve the issue of slum rehabilitation in the city as 40 per cent population lives in slums. The union government has made a provision of Rs 4,150 crore under Sardar Patel National Mission for Urban Housing with the objective of providing pucca houses to every household by 2022.

A provision of Rs 1,000 crore for urban sanitation under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has enabled cities to tackle the problem. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) already has roadmap to address the issue of open defecation.