Maharashtra Metro runs into its first hurdle, fails to garner support of corporates

Six months after it writes to Pune Inc to sponsor Metro stations, Maha Metro yet to hear from them.

A Quick Response Team in operation in Pimpri on Sunday. Maha Metro has set up two such teams: one will function in Pimpri and another in Vanaz. Both are tasked to ensure safety as Metro work paces along. (Express Photo: Rajesh Stephen)

Even as the central government has shown its readiness to extend Pune Metro till Nigdi, it has come to light that the corporate sector is not keen to extend its best foot forward to give a hard push to Pune’s most ambitious Metro project. Despite desperate pleas from the Maha Metro, which is implementing the project, the corporate sector has shied away from “identifying” itself with Metro stations. “We are ready to extend the Pune Metro till Nigdi. For this, we were exploring the possibility of seeking financial help from corporates for two Metro stations between Nigdi and Pimpri. But so far there has been no response,” said Brijesh Dixit, managing director of Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation, better known as Maha Metro.

Dixit said the Maha Metro had proposed to the corporates that the Metro stations near their vicinity could be named after their firms. “Besides, we said that stations have architecture and design resembling their respective units. Also, we had proposed that the station located near their firm could have a direct and easy access for their employees,” he said.

Dixit’s reaction regarding Maha Metro’s readiness to extend Pune Metro till Nigdi came following a meeting of Maval MP Shrirang Barne with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi last week. Barne said the Centre was keen to extend the Pune Metro till Nigdi. “For this to happen, the minister said, the PCMC and the state government should extend their share of funds. However, I have requested that the Centre should make special provision for funds in the forthcoming Union budget,” Barne said.

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Besides the Pimpri-Nigdi route, the Maha Metro had also approached other corporates like Atlas Copco, Alfa Laval, Sandvik and Marshall companies, seeking their participation in the project. “There are six Metro stations from Pimpri to Dapodi. We have urged the corporates located along the route to participate in the project by ‘taking over’ the stations. It has been six months since we approached them, but we are yet to get any response,” Dixit said. In this case too, Dixit said, the Maha Metro is ready to name the Metro stations after the firms in the area and build the architecture and the design resembling those firms. “Besides, it will provide the firm a direct access to the Metro station,” he said.

The cost of “taking over” the metro station is about Rs 60 crore — which apparently is too high for the corporate sector. However, Maha Metro said the amount could come down. “But they have to approach us at least. We can discuss the issue across the table…we are ready to lower the amount,” he said.

Dixit said that if they get funds from corporates located between Nigdi and Pimpri or between Pimpri and Dapodi, it will help them extend the Metro up to Nigdi. When asked whether they had approached giants like Thermax and Tata Motors, Dixit said, “We would be approaching a maximum number of firms not only in Pimpri-Chinchwad but in Chakan and Talegaon areas as well.” Dixit said that so far 15 per cent of the work on Pimpri-Dapodi route had been completed. “The work on Pune Metro was going at a faster pace than the Nagpur Metro,” he said.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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