Pune Metro Line 3 from Maan-Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar to be inaugurated on Nov 3, services from Nov 4

The long wait of lakhs of professionals who travel to and from the Hinjewadi IT Park for a metro is ending. Pune Metro Line 3, the 'Punyeri Metro' (Pink Line) from Maan-Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar, will be inaugurated on Tuesday, November 3. Passenger services will begin on November 4.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it online. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Sunetra Pawar and Eknath Shinde will be present at the event in Balewadi. Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) Commissioner Dr Abhijit Choudhary gave the information at a press conference on Saturday, October 31.

The project has been built on a public-private partnership model. It is 23.203 km long and fully elevated, with 23 stations. In the first phase, passengers will be able to board the metro at 17 of the 23 stations.

Six stations, numbers 13, 14, 15, 16, 20 and 22, will not open to passengers in the first phase. Their work is incomplete, so there will be no boarding or alighting there for now. Work on stations 13 and 14 is in the final stage and is planned to be completed by the end of November. Stations 15, 16, 20 and 22 and their staircases will be completed in phases and brought into service by January 2027. Even so, continuous travel will be possible from the first station, Maan, to the last, District Court.

The first metro will run at 6 am. Trains will come every 6 minutes at peak hours and every 12 minutes at other times. The last metro from Maan to District Court will leave at 10.30 pm, and the last from District Court to Maan at 11.40 pm. District Court station will connect to Mahametro's Line 1 and Line 2. There will also be a common ticket app, air-conditioned trains, charging facilities and multimodal connectivity with PMPML buses, autorickshaws, taxis and e-bikes.

Both staircases will be open at 10 stations: 4 (Hinjewadi Phase-2 Circle-2), 7 (Shri Shivchhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Chowk, Hinjewadi), 8 (Hinjewadi Phase-1), 9 (Wakad Chowk), 10 (Shri Shivchhatrapati Sports Complex, Mhalunge), 11 (MITCON, Balewadi), 12 (R. K. Laxman Museum, Balewadi), 17 (Aundh), 18 (Sakalnagar) and 19 (Savitribai Phule Pune University). Initially, seven stations will have entry and exit through a single staircase: 1 (Maan), 2 (Maan-MIDC Circle Phase-2), 3 (Maan-Bus Depot), 5 (Hinjewadi Phase-2 Circle-1), 6 (Padmabhushan Chowk), 21 (College of Agriculture) and 23 (District and Sessions Court).

All trains on this line will be driven by women train pilots, numbering about 100. About 50 per cent of station staff, including station controllers, ticketing staff and station attendants, will be women.

On the technical side, 22 train sets are available for the metro. The trains will draw power from a 750-volt DC third-rail system, and a CBTC signalling system has been installed. There is a plan to generate 7.60 MW of solar power, with a target of meeting 30 per cent of total power needs from solar energy. This will avert 28,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and save 2,000 tonnes of steel and 60 crore litres of water. A total of 5,500 new trees will be planted and 750 trees will be replanted. The line is expected to carry 2 to 2.5 lakh passengers a day.

There will be a significant difference in fares. On Mahametro's Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Swargate (16.6 km) and Vanaz to Ramwadi (14.6 km) lines, the minimum fare is Rs 10 and the maximum Rs 35. For Line 3 from Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar (23.2 km), the minimum fare has been set at Rs 12 and the maximum at Rs 62. That is a difference of Rs 2 in the minimum and Rs 27 in the maximum, and travel on Line 3 will cost more than on Mahametro.