With the positive nod from the Union Government for the metro project in the city, the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to take up the ground work for the same this year.

PMC standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam said,

Things will move this year. Already the project implementation is late. We will make substantial provision for the metro and ensure that actual work begins as soon as possible

City’s traffic is top priority and we will ensure that the comprehensive mobility plan is implemented. The complete implementation of the plan will help to mitigate the traffic woes

says municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade.

However, there are some who suspect that the incumbent party won’t take up the metro project this year. City based BJP leader Vikas Mathkari, is amongst the many who doubt the ruling party’s will to implement this project.

He said,

There is no will on the part of civic administration and ruling politicians. The cost of project will go on multiplying by each day. Traffic is a major problem city is facing and this problem will acquire gigantic form in coming years. Metro is the only answer to mitigate traffic problem. Unfortunately there is no serious attempt to follow this project

he said.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had suggested PMC and PCMC that its model be incorporated here in city as it had contributed a lot in building of build-operate transfer (BOT) and the public private partnership (PPP) models. This model gets funds of about 40% from the state and central government, commercial development add another 6 %, taxes of various kind add up to 12 % and the borrowed money from market adds up to another 33 %. The rest 9 % will come from state govt in form of land deposit.