State govt allots land to PMRDA for metro project

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra cabinet has approved a proposal to allot land to the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) as viability gap funding for the Shivajinagar to Hinjawadi metro corridor on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis.

The decision was taken during the State cabinet meeting on Tuesday, where it was decided to give 13.83 acres of government land to the operator, who will win the bid. 

The land will work as a viability gap funding and will be handed over to the bidder for commercial development.

The bidder will then have the authority to use the land for any commercial purpose.

The cost of the project is Rs 8,314 crore. The government is supposed to provide Rs 812 crore as viability gap fund. Instead of the direct funding, the state government will give land to the PMRDA.

The government will allot 21.91 hectares of land to the PMRDA. Currently, the land is with the Government Technical Institute (10.60 hectares), Dairy Development Department (7.14 hectares) and Police Department (4.17 hectares).  The State government is not providing any fund for executing the Shivajinagar to Hinjawadi Metro corridor.

The entire project is going to be executed on a PPP basis. Instead of giving any subsidy or grants, the PMRDA will give the land bank to the operator. The operator can then develop the land and use the funds for the construction of Metro corridors and operations.

The Metro corridor work will be implemented differently from the two MahaMetro corridors. There will be not be multiple tenders for every work and the single tender will include all the works. This project would be the first metro project based on PPP basis after the new metro policy.

The 23-kilometre-long stretch will connect the busy Information Technology (IT) parks with Shivajinagar.