After exploring options of the ring railway, sky bus and tram, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) seems to have settled for the Metro Railway as the "mass transit system" for Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad and adjoining suburbs. | |
| The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a 45-kilometre long metro rail network comprising of the elevated and underground rail routes. |
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| DMRC managing director E Sreedharan, on his Pune visit last week, stressed that the heavily-congested cities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinc-hwad need a light or med-ium capacity elevated metro rail network, which could also be developed under-ground in certain areas. |
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| DMRC has worked out a Rs 100 crore as the per-kilometre-cost for the elevated track development while the same works out to Rs 220 crore in case of underground corridors. |
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| Politicians, administrators and elected represent-atives over the last 20 years have been speaking of various mass-transit options for the industrial twin-cities. |
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| The initial discussions over the ring-railway could not pick up pace for various reasons while Pune MP Suresh Kalmadi's ambitious "Sky Bus" too did not work out. After the Congress was thrown out of power in the recently held PMC elections, the metro-rail project has suddenly gained momentum. |
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| In the meanwhile, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has already prepared a DPR for a tram network in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad with the help of a German firm based in Bremen. |
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| Interestingly, the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT), the local bus services, have already merged into a single company following the directives of the Supreme Court appointed Bhure Lal Committee. |
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| In the wake of these developments, Sreedha-ran's visit seems to have given a boost to the metro rail project, which might come up in three years after government approvals. |
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| "We will suggest the options to raise funds and recover costs. The DPR would be ready in another three months, which will have all the details," Sreedharan said. |
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