Traffic situation in Pune has proven to be quite a challenge, says Brijesh Dixit, managing director, Maha- Metro

The city currently has two metro projects being implemented, one by the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha-Metro) and the other that will be started by Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA). The Maha-Metro project will be receiving direct government grant.The centre and state governments will be contributing 20 per cent each of the project cost and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will be funding 10 per cent each. The remaining 50 per cent has been raised through loans and will be repayed by Maha-Metro.

The PMRDA is following the public private partnership (PPP) model which is being executed by Tata and Siemens consortium. Instead of money, PMRDA will be giving land bank to the private contractor. The project cost will be recovered via land development and ticket revenue for the next 30 years.Brijesh Dixit, managing director, Maha Metro talks to HT reporter Abhay Khairnar regarding various aspects of the project.

What are the challenges Pune Maha-Metro is currently facing and will the project be complete by the earlier set deadline?

Maha-Metro is carrying out work on Vanaz to Ramwadi and Pimpri-Chinchwad to Swargate lines. We are executing the project on war footing despite facing various issues. Earlier there were many opinions regarding the project as to whether it should be elevated or underground. Now that those have stopped new demands have begun surfacing such as extending metro corridors to more routes. Maha Metro has assured the citizens that metro work will be completed on time. It is the fastest executed project in Pune.

This is about perception about citizens but while carrying out the work what challenges did Maha Metro face?

Our main challenge was acquisition of 44 hectors of land needed for the project. Almost 90 percentage land is now in Maha-Metro’s possession within a span of one year. Second challenge was overcoming the various court cases mainly the national green tribunal (NGT) case.Another big challenge has been the traffic situation in the city. Thankfully the citizens are co-operative and the metro work is being successfully carried.Maha Metro has completed 27 per cent of the work in the span of one year.

Recently National Monument Authority asked Maha-Metro to not carry out work near Aga Khan Palace therefore changing the alignment will lead to significant increase of work load on Metro project. What is your view on it?

It is true that after National Monument Authority’s order we changed the alignment on Ahmednagar road and length of the line will now increase by 900 metres. The proposed alignment has received principal approval. However we need to remember that the DPR was prepared years ago and the government had approved of the same in 2016. Ideally this issue should have been taken up before approving the DPR. Maha-Metro is executing agency and it is carrying out work as per DPR. Such issues though crop up but we will over come the same and deliver the metro to the citizens in due time.