High Capacity Mass Transit in Pune

A decision has been taken to reserve the proposed high capacity mass transit route (HCMTR) only for public transport, said Ganesh Bidkar, standing committee chairman of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak and Bidkar attended a meeting of HCMTR that was held on Friday. “No private vehicles should be allowed on this route that will be dedicated solely to public transport. Any mass transit system, such as monorail or metro, can be made operational on this route. It has been decided to appoint a consultant to prepare a detailed project report,” Bidkar said while addressing a news conference hereon Friday.“It has also been decided to hand over the land acquisition for the project to a private firm. Tenders for the same will be floated soon,” Bidkar added. Bidkar said around 7.60 lakh sq metres land is required for the project. Of this, nearly 52,000 sq metres has already been acquired. Apart from private lands, lands owned by forest department, state government, the Pune Cantonment Board and Khadki Cantonment Board is to be acquired. “A committee of PMC officials has been formed to ensure that the land is acquired fast. Other decisions to speedup the process include use of development TDR and premium for land acquisition. PMC will offer development TDR and premium to acquire the land,”Bidkar said. HCMTR is a land route earmarked under the development plan of 1987 for swift movement of public transport vehicles and a rail-based corridor. The PMC is planning to develop nearly 34-km-long route for this project. The Development Plan for 1987 had shortlisted two internal ring roads–one that will pass through Peth areas and the other an HCMTR route connecting areas between Bopodi and Hadapsar. Of the total 430 square kilometres limit of the PMC, only 7.5% land has been developed for roads and about 65% roads earmarked in the 1987 DP have been completed. According to PMC’s own survey, severe traffic congestion in the heart of the city does not allow vehicles to exceed 10-12 km/ hour speed on an average. The 1987 DP had underlined the need to execute inner ring road project linking various thoroughfares within municipal limits. The state town planning department had workedout a detailed routeof the road that passed via various congested areas and linked main thoroughfares.