DEA has posed the Pune Metro Project to European Investment Bank (EIB) to lend 600 Million Euros
Pune, July 3, 2017: Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has posed the loan of 600m Euros for the Pune Metro Project to European Investment Bank (EIB) informed Dr. Brijesh Dixit, Managing Director, MAHA-Metro. He was speaking at the press conference held by MAHA-Metro in Pune.
Ramnath Subramaniam, Executive Director, Strategic Planning for MAHA Metro and Shashikant Limaye, Advisory Consultant, MAHA-Metro were also present for the conference.
Dr. Dixit further explained that the total funding sought for the Pune Metro Rail Project from bilateral agencies is 845 Million Euros. Out of this amount, 600 million Euros is being sought from EIB while for the balance 245 million Euros, DEA is in talks with French Development Bank (AFD) and Germany’s KfW. The decision will be made soon,” said Dixit.
Dr. Dixit also informed that there would be no cost escalation in this project. “Our aim is to save 10% 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 one 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 completed within the stipulated time period of five years i.e. Dec-2021.
While informing about the progress of the project, Dr. Dixit elaborated on the process of land acquisition as well. He emphasized that the project has been getting support from all the governmental departments, municipal corporations etc due to which the three critical land parcels i.e. Agricultural College, Shivaji-nagar godown and Kothrud Kachra 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 2% of the city will be covered by the current Metro Alignment. He said, “We should not only consider the 31.2 kms covered by the Metro in isolation but also the ~3 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% of the city and major population of Pune would benefit from this facility,” said Dr. Dixit.
Limaye, while elaborating on the construction of the elevated metro and its possible impact on the traffic of the city said that the pillar will occupy only 2.5 meters of the road. “We are securing only 300 to 400 metres of the area per pillar for construction and once the construction is over, two lanes will remain available for traffic. We will also make sure that traffic diversion plans are in place while construction work is on,” he said.
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 Vanaj and Ramwadi is expected to start by the end of July /mid-August 2017.
