The construction of two corridors of Pune Metro Phase 1 was completed and marking the inauguration of the services on the completed section, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off metro trains on Tuesday.
The new sections will connect important places of Pune city like Shivaji Nagar, Civil Court, Pune Municipal Corporation office, Pune RTO and Pune Railway Station.
It was back in 2016 that PM Modi laid the foundation for the project.
How will the new metro line help Pune commuters?
The existing metro lines connected the commuters from Vanaz to Garware College and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Phugewadi routes. Now the expanded passenger service will be on the Phugewadi to Civil Court and Ruby Hall to Garware College routes.
The Jangli Maharaj (JM) Road and Fergusson College (FC) Road will now be connected to the Deccan Gymkhana and Sambhaji Udyan stations, providing convenient access for the numerous Pune residents who frequent these areas.
The metro lines will help several students in Wadia College Campus as it is located near the Ruby Hall stationBesides that, Ruby Hall station. Long-distance journeys will also be facilitated due to the expected seamless integration with the railway at Pune Railway Station and Shivajinagar Metro Station. People visiting the Pune RTO, District Court and PMC office will also be benefitted as the metro stations are located near these places.
Atul Gadgil, director (operation) of Maha-Metro reportedly told the media, “The new stretches will connect Pune (Pune Municipal Corporation) and PCMC by metro network. More commuters will travel seamlessly from Pune to PCMC and vice-versa. It will help to increase ridership of the Pune Metro. So, we are expecting more than one lakh commuters travelling on metro after starting extended routes from Vanaz to Ramwadi and Swargate to PCMC. The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) will provide feeder services to metro stations which will help commuters reach the metro stations conveniently.”
Gadgil further said, “The Civil Court Interchange station allows passengers to conveniently switch between routes, making it possible to travel from PCMC to Vanaz or PCMC to Ruby Hall with ease.”
How to buy tickets?
After the inauguration, direct metro services from PCMC to Civil Court and Vanaz to Ruby Hall will start at 5 pm. The provisions for payment of the tickets are cash, credit/debit cards and digital wallets through the Metro app. Ticket windows and ticket vending machines will also be present at the metro stations and commuters will also be allowed to book tickets through WhatsApp to avoid lining in queues.
Metro fares in Pune
In a report by Indian Express, Director (systems and operations) of the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited Vinod K Agrawal said that the metro fare for travelling from Vanaz to Ruby Hall will be Rs 25 and from Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Civil Court will be Rs 20.
Agrawal further said, “The cost of Metro tickets will range from a minimum of Rs 10 to a maximum of Rs 35. In addition, 30% discount in fares will be given during the weekends to everyone to encourage people to take the Metro instead of taking out their personal vehicles."
Students will be allowed to avail of a 30 per cent discount on the tickets and regular commuters who use Automatic Fare Collection card will be given a 10 per cent discount.
The Civil Court station is an interconnecting station of the North-South and East-West corridors and will be handling an expected capacity of sox lakh passengers along with the provision of adequate facilities. The reports said that there is a 30-metre-deep underground route that connects PCMC to Swargate and Vanaz to Ramwadi.
The Pune Metro authority has recently implemented the Computer-Based Train Control system in the Civil Court station after conducting thorough trials for two months. The Metro will be running from 7 am to 10 pm, providing a train every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 15 minutes during non-peak hours. The reports said that the frequency of trains will be adjusted based on the number of riders and demand.
Reportedly, there are 18 trains in total and out of them, only 11 trains will operate at a frequency of 10 minutes.
