Civic bodies to put monorail project on fast track

Rites Ltd,consultant in the fields of transport,infrastructure and related technologies,backed out from conducting the techno-economic feasibility study for the mono rail project,citing its pre-occupation with Mumbai’s monorail project.

“We are of the opinion that monorail and Metro rail should be pushed simultaneously for the city to resolve the long pending issue of the lack of an efficient public transport system,” said Mahesh Zagade,Commissioner,Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said the city needs a public transport system like monorail to reduce the load of vehicles on city roads. “There is no need to wait any longer for introducing monorail in the city,” he said.

PCMC Mayor Yogesh Behl said the city has to have a public transport system that meets the demand of residents of both PMC and PCMC. “We recently held a discussion on implementation of Metro in the city and would also decide on the introduction of monorail now,” he said.

Meanwhile,the reason for financial provision for Pune Metro rail not happening in this budget is said to be the delay in its proposal reaching the Centre. “The PMC has already sent the proposal to the state government for forwarding it to the Centre. There was no delay in submitting the proposal as it was not intended to make it to the next fiscal,” Zagade said.

The PCMC is to soon take up the proposal in the general body before sending it to the state government.