Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated Pune's new Pink Line metro corridor and laid the foundation stone for four further corridors in the city, in a programme that the government presented as part of a much larger transformation of urban transport across India. The event, held through video conferencing, combined the opening of a working line with the start of a second phase of expansion, together involving investment of around Rs 21,800 crore.
The newly opened corridor is Pune Metro Line 3, known as the Pink Line. It runs for about 23 kilometres and connects Maan with the District Court metro station, linking the Hinjewadi information technology hub with Shivajinagar. Built at a cost of more than Rs 8,300 crore, the line is expected to make daily travel easier for thousands of technology professionals and other commuters who work in and around Hinjewadi, one of Pune's busiest employment centres.
Officials have said the corridor has 23 stations in total, with passenger services beginning at 17 stations initially and the remaining six expected to open in phases by January 2027. The line has been developed under a public-private partnership model, and it will be operated entirely by women train operators. Around 30 per cent of its electricity requirement is to be met through solar power, underlining an emphasis on cleaner operations alongside faster travel.
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for Pune Metro Phase-II, estimated to cost around Rs 13,500 crore. That phase comprises four corridors, Lines 2A, 2B, 4 and 4A, which are intended to extend metro connectivity to residential neighbourhoods, commercial districts and information technology hubs across the city.
Lines 2A and 2B together cover about 12.75 kilometres, while Line 4 runs for about 25.52 kilometres between Kharadi and Khadakwasla and Line 4A covers about 6.12 kilometres from Nal Stop to Manik Baug.
Speaking at the event, Mr Modi placed the Pune projects in the context of national growth in metro rail over the past 12 years. He said India's operational metro network covered only 248 kilometres before 2014 and now covers around 1,200 kilometres. Metro services were available in only five cities in 2014, he said, and are now operational in 26 cities, with more than one crore people travelling by metro every day.
India, he added, now figures among the world's top three metro networks.
The Prime Minister argued that better urban infrastructure would accelerate economic growth by saving commuting time and improving convenience for citizens. When a city's time is saved, he said, its productivity increases, which in turn contributes to the wider economy and benefits the poor and the middle class.
He described the expansion of metro networks as a reflection of people-centric and proactive governance, focused on ease of living and ease of transportation for the middle class living in cities.
He also spoke specifically about Maharashtra's progress. The operational metro network in the state, he said, has expanded from just 11 kilometres in 2014 to nearly 200 kilometres, while work is underway on more than 680 kilometres of metro lines. Maharashtra is attracting investments of more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore in metro infrastructure alone, he said, generating employment for workers and engineers and creating work for shops, factories and other businesses along the way.
Pune itself, Mr Modi said, is a centre of ideas that has given new direction to the nation and to society, and is now shaping India's new energy through its presence in information technology, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, start-ups, innovation and manufacturing. Stronger metro connectivity, he argued, would give a new impetus to the city's development, strengthen links between its old and new areas, and improve connectivity between the Hinjewadi hub and Shivajinagar.
The Prime Minister recalled laying the foundation stone for the first phase of Pune Metro around a decade ago, and said the latest expansion showed how joint efforts between the government and the private sector could accelerate development. The Pink Line project, developed under a public-private partnership, was cited as an example of that approach, with private participation helping to deliver a large urban project more quickly than public funding alone might have allowed.
Beyond Pune, Mr Modi said the government had approved an Urban Challenge Fund in February this year, with Rs 1 lakh crore in central assistance aimed at mobilising investment in urban development over the coming years. He urged local bodies and private sector stakeholders to work together in mission mode to transform smaller cities into growth hubs, arguing that cities are not merely places to live but major centres of economic activity.
He also used the occasion to express concern over difficulties faced by farmers in Maharashtra because of adverse weather conditions. The Centre and the state government stood firmly with farmers during the crisis, he said, and would support them with sensitivity.
He urged people to ensure that farmers and rural families affected by the situation could also celebrate Deepavali, describing that as a collective social responsibility and saying that the country would face the calamity together.
For Pune's commuters, the immediate change is a direct metro link between a major employment zone and the city centre, reducing dependence on private vehicles and easing traffic congestion on roads that carry heavy peak-hour traffic. For the city as a whole, the four new corridors, once built, are intended to spread that benefit more widely, connecting residential areas with workplaces, markets and educational institutions.
The programme therefore brought together two different stages of the same story: a line ready for passengers, and a larger network still to be built. Together, officials said, they point towards a Pune in which metro travel becomes a normal part of daily life for a far larger share of residents, rather than a service limited to a few corridors.
Passenger services on the new corridor were due to begin on November 4, giving commuters an immediate alternative to road travel between Hinjewadi and Shivajinagar from the day after the inauguration. For professionals who travel to the information technology park every working day, that timing matters, because it converts a ceremonial opening into a practical change in the morning commute.
Over time, as the remaining stations open and the Phase-II corridors are built, the network is expected to offer more interchange options, allowing passengers to reach more parts of the city without returning to congested roads.
(Reporting based on The Hindu and The Economic Times.)