Maharashtra Govt approves extension plan of Pune Metro Rail Corridor

Pune, India (Urban Transport News): The Maharashtra state cabinet on 17th February 2021 gave its approval for the first extension to the Rs 11,420 crore Pune Metro Rail project. The cabinet has approved the extension of the metro route from PCMC to Nigdi on the Pimpri Chinchwad – Swargate Line. This extension is part of the 16.5 km PCMC-Swargate line which will now be extended by 4.4 km from Pimpri to Nigdi.

According to the plan, this will be an elevated line with three new stations at Chinchwad, Akurdi and Nigdi. This line will also have a depot, parking bays, multimodal transport integration and pedestrian bridge. The Pune Metro extension was earlier estimated to cost around Rs 1,050 crore.

The first DPR prepared by Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha Metro) for the Pune Metro Rail project had excluded this densely populated stretch in the Pimpri Chinchwad and citizens groups had been campaigning for the extension. The extension was approved two years ago but the funding for the extension was not cleared because the union government had capped its funding at 10% of the construction cost so the state government had to revise the funding model and consider a fresh proposal to extend the metro.

The Pune Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (PUMTA) has sought approval for a 70 km extension to the Pune Metro rail network to make it a 125 km metro network. The detailed project report (DPR) preparation process for the extension of five routes is in progress.

The Pune Metro Rail project is being executed by the Maha Metro. For more details, please explore the "Pune Metro" page of Urban Transport News.