Pune metro project should have long term benefit for city, says NGO

PUNE: The Pune Metro project should proceed smoothly without hindrance or adverse impacts, and be of long term lasting benefit for the city, NGO Pedestrians First has said. In a letter addressed to Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar, convener of Pedestrians First Prashant Inamdar has raised some issues. AS per figures given in detailed project report, there would be very low ridership on the route on Vanaz Ramwadi corridor.``It means that the proposed metro route is not suitable for the needs of people considering their origin-destinations.
As a result metro will not be of expected use and people will be required to use vehicles even after implementation of metro. Hence traffic congestion on roads will not reduce. Low ridership will also mean less income for metro and higher fares than stated in the DPR. Thus there is a big question mark on the utility and viability of metro’’, he said.
He added that there is no inter-connectivity between the two metro corridors, PCMC - Swargate corridor, and Vanaz – Ramwadi which cross each other at Barve chowk. The two corridors do not get interconnected here as the first corridor is underground and the second corridor is elevated and metro stations for the two corridors are located away from each other. Hence interchange between the two corridors will be inconvenient and people will not be able use the two corridors suitably as per their origin–destinations. This is a big drawback of the metro plan because of which the full benefits of metro will not be available to the city. Moreover this will also affect ridership and viability of metro, Pedestrians First said.