Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha Metro) will start work on the detailed project report (DPR) for ‘Metro Neo’ project in Pune. Maha Metro MD Brijesh Dixit said the civic body in Pune had approached Maha Metro for converting the proposed High Capacity Mass Transit Route (HCMTR) into a Metro Neo project. The ‘Metro Neo’ mass rapid transit system in the country was mooted by Maha Metro as an alternative to the metro rail.
The Metro Neo can be constructed at one third of the standard gauge metro rail, Dixit said. The Metro Neo does not need rails or rolling stock and saves cost by using rubber tyre based electric bus coaches that run on a slab surface on an elevated corridor.
Maha Metro is already working on a 32-km Nashik Metro Neo project with in-principle nod from the Union government. This is the first of its kind Metro Neo project to come up in the country. The Nashik Metro Neo project is expected to cost around `2,100 core compared to `8,000 plus crore it would have cost to build the rail-based Metro.
The government liked the idea of Metro Neo and appointed Dixit to chair a committee for standardization and detail specifications for a rubber-tyred mass rapid transportation system to be implemented across India. It is an eco-friendly, energy efficient, cost-effective and capable of providing an efficient mass public transport system, Dixit said.
The HCMTR project for Pune was originally supposed to be a 36 km-long, 80 foot-wide six-lane fully elevated road passing through Pune city with four lanes for private vehicles and two lanes for buses but was scrapped because of high cost and environmental concerns.
