MAHA Metro To Get European Investment Bank Funding

July 4, 2017

(L-R) Ramnath Subramanium, Dr. Brijesh Dixit and Shashikant Limaye addresing the Press Conference at Patrakar Sangh, Pune — (L-R) Ramnath Subramanium, Dr. Brijesh Dixit and Shashikant Limaye

In a bid to ward off ‘rumours’ that have been surrounding the Pune Metro project, Brijesh Dixit, the Managing Director of MAHA Metro, met the press yesterday. He announced several initiatives of the metro project and responded to several questions from the media.

Total funding sought for the metro project from bilateral agencies is 845 million Euros. Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has posed the loan of 600 million Euros for the Pune Metro Project to European Investment Bank (EIB) while for the balance 245 million Euros, the DEA is in talks with French Development Agency (AFD).

Ramnath Subramaniam, Executive Director, Strategic Planning for MAHA Metro and Shashikant Limaye, Advisory Consultant, MAHA-Metro were also present for the conference.

Dixit informed the media that there would be no cost escalation in this project.

“Our aim is to save 10 per cent of the total project cost just as we have been able to do in Nagpur. We will ensure that Pune’s metro will be well within the budget and cost effective at the same time,” he said.

The Pune Metro will be constructed in two corridors. Corridor 1 is the route from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Swargate. The second corridor is between Vanaz to Ramwadi. The phase one will cover the total distance of 31.2 kms. The work on corridor one has already begun before Nashik Phata. The entire project is expected to be completed within the stipulated time period of five years.

While informing about the progress of the project, Dixit elaborated on the process of land acquisition as well. He emphasized that the project is supported from all the governmental departments and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) due to which the three critical land parcels Agricultural College, Shivajinagar go down and Kothrud Garbage depot are likely to be handed over to the metro in the next two months.

He also clarified the doubts raised by citizens that only two per cent of the city will be covered by the current metro alignment. “We should not only consider the 31.2 kms covered by the metro in isolation but also the three kms on each side of every station that the feeder buses would service and beyond which the local buses would service. We are introducing feeder transport and multi-modal integration transport facilities and in totality this would cover over 50 per cent of the city and major population of Pune would benefit from this facility.”

The MAHA-Metro officials also informed that work on the PCMC-Range Hill depot has already commenced from May 2017 and work on the second corridor between Vanaz and Ramwadi is expected to start by the end of July 2017.