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Pune-Nashik rail project: Kakodkar panel to assess GMRT concerns
The state government has constituted a four-member panel headed by Anil Kakodkar to assess the impact of the project’s original alignment on the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Narayangaon in rural Pune.
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Pune: Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Anil Kakodkar said the high-powered committee formed to examine the Pune-Nashik semi-high-speed rail project will explore all possible technical solutions to determine whether the issues concerning the original alignment can be resolved.
The state government has constituted a four-member panel headed by Kakodkar to assess the impact of the project’s original alignment on the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) near Narayangaon in rural Pune.
Apart from Kakodkar, the committee comprises Railway Board member (infrastructure) Vivek Gupta, Pune divisional commissioner Sheetal Teli-Ugale and her Nashik counterpart Praveen Gedam.
“I have received the written communication from the state government regarding my appointment as head of the panel. The problem concerning the original alignment is purely technical in nature. The committee will examine the issue and explore potential options to determine whether it can be resolved,” Kakodkar said on Friday.
He said the committee’s first meeting would be held soon.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the formation of the panel following growing demands from politicians and residents of Pune and Nashik to urge the railways to find a solution to the concerns raised by the GMRT without altering the original alignment.
The railways had altered the proposed alignment to route the project via Ahilyanagar after the original route through Chakan, Rajgurunagar, Manchar, Sangamner and Sinnar faced objections from GMRT.
Residents of rural Pune and Nashik, backed by politicians, staged a rasta roko on August 9, urging the state government not to change the original alignment in favour of the Ahilyanagar route.
“My appeal to the committee is to complete the assessment exercise as soon as possible. The rural population of Pune and Nashik desperately wants the original route to be retained,” said Nashik MLC Satyajeet Tambe.
Meanwhile, NCP cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal said he had recently met Fadnavis and requested him to persuade the railways to proceed with the original alignment instead of diverting the route via Ahilyanagar.
Bhujbal has also written to Kakodkar, requesting him to recommend that the project be taken forward on the original alignment.
“I have suggested a dual road-cum-rail tunnel near GMRT to avoid any disruption to its radio-silence zone and its highly sensitive astronomical observations,” Bhujbal said.
According to Bhujbal, the original Pune-Nashik rail route would be around 236 km, compared with nearly 330 km for the proposed alignment via Ahilyanagar. He said the shorter route would be more suitable and would help accelerate economic growth in Pune, Nashik and north Maharashtra.
