Navdeep Tupe

Claude- •Pune's delay was mostly at the Centre after 2014. The state approved the initial 31.25 km project in June 2012, but central approval came only on 7 December 2016, almost 4.5 years later. •The BJP's own Pune MP held it up. Anil Shirole, the BJP MP from Pune, opposed the project, backed demands for a new DPR and favoured an underground metro. •The DPR was in hand since 2009. DMRC prepared and submitted the Phase 1 DPR in July 2009, then revised it in January 2013, August 2014, and once more after that. •Pune missed its deadline too. The first 6 km stretch, PCMC to Phugewadi, opened on 6 March 2022, and full Phase 1 was expected only by March 2024, well after its December 2021 deadline. •Half the "new metro cities" were sanctioned before 2014. Of 14 new metros opened between 2014 and 2022, seven had been approved or sanctioned earlier: Chennai Phase 1, Faridabad, Hyderabad Phase 1, Jaipur Phase 1A, Bahadurgarh, Kochi Phase 1 and Mumbai Line 1. •Early post-2014 openings were pre-2014 projects. Mumbai opened 8 June 2014, Jaipur 3 June 2015, Chennai 29 June 2015, Kochi 19 June 2017, Hyderabad 29 November 2017. •The 2014 city count is wrong. FactChecker, using MoHUA annual reports, found six cities, not five, had operational metros before 2014. •The current city count is padded with NCR towns. The government lists operational metro cities as "Delhi & 8 NCR cities" plus the rest, so Delhi Metro extensions across state borders become separate cities. •Ridership is far below what justified the spending. An IIT-Delhi and Infravision Foundation report found most Indian metro systems carry 25-30 percent of projected ridership. •City-wise shortfalls. An IIT Delhi whitepaper put ridership at 47% of projections in Delhi, 30% in Mumbai and Kolkata, and 6% in Bengaluru. •CAG on Bengaluru (August 2026). Phase 1's peak-hour peak-direction traffic in 2021 ranged from 6,429 to 8,852 against projections of 15,000, with no study on raising ridership to justify a heavy metro. •CAG on Delhi Phase 3. Daily ridership across corridors was 15-87% below projections, and DMRC fell Rs 3,689.06 crore short of projected property earnings. •Parliamentary committee on Kolkata. Kolkata Metro averaged 5.40-5.84 lakh daily riders pre-Covid against 15 lakh needed to break even. •Parliamentary committee on Lucknow. Lucknow needs 200,000 daily riders to repay its loans but had around 85,000. Sources: •Scribd copy of Pune Metro Wikipedia entry •Khaleej Times •The Metro Rail Guy: Pune Metro •The Metro Rail Guy: Pune Phase 1 •The Metro Rail Guy: opening dates •FactChecker •PIB, Dec 2024 •ThePrint •Finshots •CAG press release, Aug 2026 •The Hans India •OmmCom News