Modi visit put off, Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar Metro still has no opening date

The Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar Metro, ready on paper and running trial trains for over three months, has once more been left without an opening date. The Prime Minister's programme in the region has been put off, and with it the hope of an early inauguration. IT employees who sit in daily traffic on Hinjewadi's roads are asking how much longer they must wait while an empty Metro runs beside them.

Narendra Modi was expected to inaugurate the line during a visit to Baramati planned for November 3, in the first week of the month. Administrative and police sources now say that visit has been postponed. The early-November target has therefore slipped, and no official announcement has been made about the Prime Minister's revised schedule or about a new inauguration date. The line has so far carried no passengers for about 100 days.

The elevated corridor, 23.2 km long, was built through a public-private partnership and links the IT hub at Hinjewadi with Shivajinagar. All 17 stations are complete, and the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety has cleared them for passenger service. Twenty coaches and about 90 train operators are said to be ready. More than 10 trial runs are held daily to check timings, halts at stations and total travel time. An earlier impression that safety approval was still awaited is outdated, as the clearance has now been received.

The project has a long record of delay. It was meant to be running at the start of last year, and the March 2026 deadline was also missed. The Chief Minister's Office then stepped in and directed that the first 12 km stretch be completed. The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Pune IT City Metro finished the 12 stations of that first phase and had them inspected. To make the line more useful for commuters, it was then decided to extend service to the Shivajinagar district court, and approval was obtained for the remaining five stations.

Service was expected to start once the technical formalities were over, but the model code of conduct for the Legislative Council elections stalled the inauguration. The state government kept pressing the PMRDA and the developer to finish on time. Officials had hoped that right after Diwali, IT professionals and other Pune residents would get major relief from congestion.

With every approval now in hand, critics allege that lakhs of people are being denied a finished service only because a formal ceremony is awaited. Traffic experts and ordinary commuters argue that passengers could have been allowed on board at once, and that the ceremony could have been held later to suit the VIP's calendar.

The Metro is expected to cut travel time considerably for those who travel between Hinjewadi and Shivajinagar every day, and to ease pressure on one of the city's busiest routes. Those commuters have high hopes of it. For now, although the line is largely ready, nothing has been announced about when it will open.