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Third, fourth Pune-Lonavla railway corridor in limbo; state govt cocks a snook at Centre
Pune: The Covid pandemic may end up becoming the biggest obstacle to the railways ministry’s plans to set up the third and fourth corridor connecting Lonavla and Pune
Pune: The Covid pandemic may end up becoming the biggest obstacle to the railways ministry’s plans to set up the third and fourth corridor connecting Lonavla and Pune.
The cost of two corridors was to be equally borne by the Centre and state government. The state has raised its hands pointing to its empty coffers citing the pandemic and the Centre’s inability in paying the state’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) backlog.
MLA Laxman Jagtap raised the issue during the budget session.
According to source in the railways, the singular corridor connecting Pune to Lonavla which serves as a connection between Mumbai and the rest of the country is overburdened leading to massive congestion, delays and raising red flags on safety.
“I have been following up this issue with both the state and the Centre because it doesn’t only affect my constituency but rail commuters on western zone. I had raised the issue with the state government asking them to raise funds on an emergency basis, but the minister of state for urban development Prajakt Tanpure has informed in a written reply that the state does not have funds,” said Jagtap.
The written reply further states, “the first demand for the third corridor came up in 2015 -16 and the Union budget pink book had allocated ₹800 crore for the same and approved a total expenditure of ₹943.60 crore. The railway board on December 11, 2015 had assigned this project to Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) and accordingly MRVC was named as the nodal agency to execute both the third and fourth corridors. In 2017-18, the pink book mentioned again the allocation of funds for this project and pointed out that MRVC will undertaking the same. Based on this, the MRVC MD put forward the proposal to the state government on December 29, 2015.
“According to this proposal, the third and fourth corridors had been approved of by the Central Railway GM”.
The state government had assured its 50% share of the expenditure will include free and nominal interest rate in advance. For this, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) were all going to contribute according to the principally agreed upon assurance.
The then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had given an assurance on February 23, 2016 to the Union railway ministry.
By the time the project was brought before the state planning commission, the country was facing Covid and the planning commission prohibited any expenditure on any new schemes and making any new plans for such expenditure.
The correspondence between the minister of state and MLA Jagtap implies the third and fourth corridor will hang in abeyance. The said corridor would not only facilitate rail commuters but also help the remote tribal interiors by improving connectivity to Mumbai and Pune.
“The project should at least be done for the sake of poor tribals,” said Jagtap.
Interestingly, sources in the state government point out how this is a quid-pro-quo by the state government against the Modi government for stalling its Metro project in Mumbai.
