Indian Express 20.01.2010
Civic body panel okays Metro plan
The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking Rs 2,400 crore from the state and union governments for the first phase of Metro rail in the city that will cost Rs 5,998 crore.
The proposal said the project will be taken up jointly by the PMC and the neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) with financial assistance of 20 per cent each from the state and union governments. The resolution will be finally approved at the civic general body meeting.
“The proposal of a special purpose vehicle to set up Pune Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for the first phase of the proposed metro rail service was approved by the standing committee today,” said Nilesh Nikam, chairman of the committee.
He said the project would be implemented jointly by PMC and PCMC with both the civic bodies sharing five per cent each of the project cost through budgetary allocation while seeking financial assistance of 20 per cent each from state and union governments.
It said the rest of the funds for Pune Metro can be raised from property development alongside the metro rail track, charging 50 per cent cess for new vehicle registration in the city, surcharge of fuel, cess on companies having over 100 employees and surcharge of star hotels.
The civic administration had proposed that the civic body should accept the detailed project report (DPR) of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) project and implement it either through public private partnership or built operate transfer basis
The first phase of 31.52 km of the project includes 16.59-km Pimpri-Chinchwad to Shivajinagar route and 14.93-km Vanaz to Pune Station route. The estimated cost for the first phase is Rs 5,998 crore. On June 9 last year, the DMRC had submitted its preliminary report on metro rail in Pune and final report on September 4.
“The standing committee has approved the proposal hoping that it would be cleared in the next civic general body meeting immediately so that it could be sent to the union government for financial assistance in the next year budget,” Nikam said, adding that the process of next budget of union government is going on and the proposal should reach on time for consideration.
Corporator Ujjwal Keskar said the civic administration was hushing up the proposal without holding a discussion on it.
“The civic administration has not yet made the final report public and was going ahead with approving the proposal. The DMRC report cannot be accepted as it is,” he added.
The DMRC has mentioned that the project cannot be feasible considering the present population density of the city, he said, adding that the proposal to give four floor space index for structures alongside the tracks of metro rail will lead to increase in the population and put strain on the existing civic infrastructure.
NCP leader Anil Bhosale said the proposal passed by the standing committee could be amended later as per the requirements of the PMC and there was no problem of it being cleared now.
