Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MahaMetro) on Wednesday said inspection of one stretch of the Pune Metro by the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) will begin in February and approvals are expected by March. The CMRS authorisation is necessary for commencing commercial operations of the Pune Metro Rail.
The CMRS inspection will be for the section from Vanaz to Civil Court and from Civil Court to Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Brijesh Dixit, managing director, MahaMetro, said they were hopeful of getting the clearances by end of March. Work on the critical interchange metro station where the two corridors of Pune Metro meet is nearing completion, with 95% of the structural work done and work on fit-outs going on, Dixit said.
The Pune Metro has two routes – PCMC to Swargate (17 km) and Vanaz to Ramwadi (16 km), while the third line is being built by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Tata-Siemens consortium. The lines intersect at Civil Court Metro station, making it an important station for the three metro lines.
The Civil Court Interchange Metro station has an underground station on the PCMC to Swargate route and an elevated station on the Vanaz to Ramwadi route. The underground station is connected to the elevated station by escalators and lifts. The depth of the Civil Court Interchange metro station is 33.1 metre (108.59 ft), making it the deepest metro station in India.
The ceiling of this underground station is 95-feet high and has been designed to receive direct sunlight or natural light. Spread across 11.17 acre, it is also the largest station in the Pune Metro network with multiple entry and exit points.