First underground station of Pune Metro nears readiness

The first underground metro station of Pune will be ready in November and will be operational as soon as it gets clearance from the Railway Safety Department. In Phase I, the Pune Metro Rail is developing 30 km of rail routes between Vanaz and Ramwadi, and Pimpri Chinchwad-Swargate. The Vanaz-Ramwadi route is elevated while Pimpri Chinchwad-Swargate is elevated from Pimpri Chinchwad to Rangehill, and underground from Shivajinagar to Swargate. Operations have partly been started on both routes since March, between Vanaz-Garware College and Pimpri Chinchwad-Phugewadi. Pune Metro plans to extend operations by December-end from Garware College to Civil Court and Phugewadi to Civil Court. The Civil Court is the interchange station with both the routes crossing there. “Around 85 per cent of the underground metro station at Shivajinagar is complete and will be ready by the next month. However, it will be operational only after clearance of Railway Safety,” said Brijesh Dixit, managing director of MahaMetro, which is implementing Pune metro rail project. He said the extension from both the sides, till Civil Court, will provide connectivity from Vanaz to Pimpri Chinchwad and will encourage the use of Metro rail in the city. All the stations, except Kirkee and Rangehill, will be ready for use when the operations begin, Dixit added. See also: Gurugram metro corridors likely to get approvalKalyan MP urges MMRDA to fast-track Kalyan-Taloja Metro-12