Underground or elevated metro? Gen Body defers voting until Mar

The decision on whether to have underground or elevated metro routes for the city will now be delayed further as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) General Body yesterday deferred the voting on it until March next year. While corporators from the Shiv Sena, MNS and BJP demanded the issue be discussed yesterday itself, the Congress and NCP voted in favour of the decision being deferred.

The outcome was finally decided by a simple show of hands, which led to the issue being eventually postponed to the General Body meeting in March next year. While 25 corporators voted to defer the decision, 19 demanded immediate discussion on the issue.

In a recent vote in the Standing Committee a few days ago, political alliances temporarily changed stand over the nature of metro routes. The Shiv Sena, NCP and Munde loyalists in BJP came together to favour underground routes, while the Gadkari faction in BJP and the Congress supported an elevated corridor.

The issue gained significance after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan promised to implement an elevated metro project on October 31. Following this, Congress ally NCP suddenly changed its stand and demanded underground routes with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar citing the ill-effects of elevated routes in Bangalore.

Shiv Sena leader Prithviraj Sutar then moved a proposal before the Standing Committee demanding an underground metro. The BJP later moved a proposal which demanded that the nature of the routes be decided purely on the advice given by the technical consultant appointed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and elevated and underground routes be built wherever necessary. This BJP resolution was then considered in the latest General Body meeting.

The GB, earlier, approved the construction of a 15-km elevated corridor between Vanaz and Ramwadi in June 2010, which would cost Rs 2,593 crore.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Rs 2,593 cr
Projected cost of a 15-km elevated metro route between Vanaz and Ramwadi