Hinjewadi metro: Ajit Pawar moots survey

A survey to explore the feasibility of a new metro route linking the city with the IT park in Hinjewadi has been ordered by the deputy chief minister Mr.Ajit Pawar on Friday.

While speaking at the 31st anniversary celebrations of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the minister said that the route would benefit thousands of IT professionals from Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad who work in the IT companies in Hinjewadi. At present, during peak hours, the roads linking Hinjewadi to other parts of the city experience heavy traffic congestion. A metro which links the cities is the need of the hour, to improve the current scenario.

Citizens had made a demand to extend the metro between Pimpri to Swargate. The demand was approved by the state cabinet recently, and the route would be extended from Nigdi to Katraj.

Cost and implementation of the project

The estimated cost of the project is about Rs 10,000 crore. Financial institutions will provide a loan of about Rs.5000 crore, and the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation will bear the cost of the metro route that is in its limits. Fifty percent of the total cost would be borne by the union and the state governments.

The implementation of the project would be supervised by a committee, including about 5 experts from Delhi and municipal commissioners of PMC and PCMC. Secretaries of industries department and urban development department (UDD) would also be engaged in the supervision of the project.

Improvement of the transport system in the city is being given due consideration by the government lately. In addition to the extension of the metro project, the state government have also approved the proposal for development of about 10 skywalks in Thane, put forward by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. Earlier last week, the civic authority had also agreed to fund purchase of 500 buses in the city, through Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).