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The politics of delay: Swargate to Katraj metro route offtrack
PUNE: The Swargate to Katraj metro is getting delayed, thanks to the politicking among parties
PUNE: The Swargate to Katraj metro is getting delayed, thanks to the politicking among parties. While the standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has given its nod to the corporation bearing Rs733 crore of the total project cost on 20 May this year, the proposal is lying before the general body for the past three months. On its part, the standing committee too gave its nod after a long time due to controversy over the route.
Mayor Murlidhar Mohol said, “The proposal was approved by the standing committee and we were planning to give it the nod in the general body meeting. With the general body meeting being adjourned however, the proposal too got postponed.”
Hemant Rasne, chairman of the standing committee, said, “We have given the nod to the proposal. Now, all parties need to give it the green signal in the general body meeting.”
While all political parties are for the Swargate to Katraj metro, internal politics between various outfits has delayed the project. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) initially dragged its feet over finalising the route as some members were eager to divert it to Market Yard. Later, there was controversy over whether the route should be elevated or underground. While the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation gave both options, it was finally decided to stick with the underground route.
According to BJP sources, plans were afoot to approve the proposal in the last general body meeting itself however opposition parties initially asked to postpone it, later requesting to give their nod after getting instructions from the bosses. Admitting that the proposal had been unnecessarily delayed, BJP leaders even said that had it been approved on time, they would have been able to blame the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government however now the entire blame for the delay had fallen on the BJP.
Meanwhile, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) city unit president Prashant Jagtap stated, “Our leader Ajit Pawar has clearly said not to bring politics into development projects. When the proposal comes for approval, the NCP will support it.”
Whereas Congress party leader Gopal Tiwari objected to the project saying that the centre had given its nod to bearing only 10% of the total project cost as against 20%. Tiwari said that the central government had reduced its share in the project as it was biased against Pune city.
Highlights of the project
Total project cost ₹4,203 crore
Total length 5.5 kilometre and entire route underground
Route to have daily ridership of 6.68 lakh
According to previous model, the central and state government would each bear 20% of the total project cost while the PMC would bear 10% and the rest would be raised as loan
For Swargate to Katraj, the central government will now bear only 10% of the total project cost as against the earlier 20%
