With second tranche of investment from European Investment bank, Pune to get its metro very soon

The cities of Maharashtra had to wait for the metro rail network for decades despite being among the richest in the country, thanks to the lethargy of the Congress and NCP. After the Devendra Fadnavis government came to power in the state in 2014, many of the infrastructure projects were fast-tracked and Pune Metro was one of them.

European Investment Bank, a major financier of the Pune Metro Rail Project, has committed a second tranche of investment of 150 million Euros. The EIB has approved a total loan of 600 million euros for the Pune metro, and the first tranche of the investment of 200 million euros was signed between the investment bank and the Modi government in July 2019.

“The financing from EIB will help to fund construction and operation of Corridor 1 (North-South) – Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Swargate and Corridor 2 (West-East) -Vanaz (Kothrud) to Ramvadi, totalling about 31.25 km and related purchase of a related fleet of metro cars,” said the officials of Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MAHAMETRO), the implementation agency for the project.

MAHAMETRO, the implementation agency for four metro projects in the state of Maharashtra – Nagpur, Pune, Nashik, Thane – will give a major intra-city connectivity boost to these cities. The intra-city connectivity is among the poorest in the cities of Maharashtra despite the fact that they are richer as compared to cities of other states. The gross negligence of public spending over city infrastructure has made commuting a tedious task in these cities.

The city of Mumbai has one of the worst public infrastructures in the country due to ignorance by the Congress-NCP alliance government which ruled the state from 1999 to 2014. The Fadnavis led government spent billions of dollars to improve the public infrastructure and tried to give a comprehensive metro network to the financial capital, which got its first metro line almost one and a half decade after Delhi.

The people of Mumbai travel 2-3 hours daily in the congested local trains to commute but the Congress-NCP government funnelled all the taxpayer’s money into the Baramati region – the bastion of the Pawars, and Marathwada region- the stronghold of Congress.

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During the 5 years of the Fadnavis government, the Mumbai metro got a booster shot with multiple lines getting approved and construction started, but the tri-party alliance government has once again slowed down the project under the pressure from eco-fascist over the Aarey metro car shed.

Unlike the Mumbai Metro, which is owned by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), a state government body, the Pune Metro is under MAHAMETRO that is a joined venture of the Government of India and the Government of Maharashtra, and this is the region the work on this project has not slowed down, and the citizens of Pune can expect multiple metros operational very soon.