PMRDA to build parking at eight metro sites, asks civic bodies to provide land

The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) is preparing to set up parking facilities at eight places along the city's metro network. It has written to the municipal corporations concerned asking them to hand over the land required.

The move follows a visible change on the ground. Metro stations have no designated parking, so commuters have started leaving two-wheelers and cars along the roadside and beneath the viaduct. The habit is spreading, and it obstructs traffic and adds to the crowds around the stations.

PMRDA Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari (also spelt Chaudhary in some reports) said groundwork has started at two of the eight sites, while the other six will be taken up at a later stage. The authority has not yet disclosed which locations are on the list. He said: "We have identified eight such locations where parking facilities can be considered." He added that the authority is also trying to improve last-mile connectivity, so that fewer commuters need to rely on their own vehicles.

The trouble has grown since the Pimpri Chinchwad-Swargate corridor began running. Feeder buses that connect residential neighbourhoods to the stations are too few, which pushes many people to drive. Without organised parking, they leave their vehicles wherever they can find room.

PMRDA believes that structured parking, together with better bus links, will draw more passengers to the metro and reduce congestion near the stations.

The shortage is an old one. In January 2024, PMRDA asked the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for plots close to stations on the Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar line. Back then, only three of its 23 stations, Maan, Balewadi and Shivajinagar, had land available for parking. In September 2025, PMC cleared eight amenity spaces on that line, covering 13,051 square metres in all. Two further sites were to be developed within PMRDA's own jurisdiction.

PMC has a plan of its own. In March 2026 it stated that parking would come up at 31 of the 34 amenity spaces that lie within 500 metres of metro stations.

Maha Metro, the operator of both working corridors, has been offering paid parking at eight stations since 2023, among them PCMC, Shivajinagar, Civil Court and Swargate. Passengers nonetheless keep complaining that crowded stations lack parking space.