NASHIK: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Pune next week for an event; from where the Nashik Metro is likely to be inaugurated virtually. As per the information received, Nashik Mayor Satish Kulkarni has made such a demand to the party. However, the party has not yet clarified this.
Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced to start Metro service in Nashik in October 2018. Cidco and Mahametro then surveyed the metro in the city. Maha metro had recommended running an elevated tyre based metro as there is no availability of a capacity of 20,000 passengers per hour to start metro service in Nashik.
Accordingly, a survey was conducted by a Delhi-based Rights company for the tyre-based metro service. The project was renamed ‘Metro Neo’ in August 2019. It then submitted a proposal for the approval of the Centre.
While presenting the budget for FY 2021-22, it was announced to provide Rs. 2092 crore for the Metro Neo project. The projected cost of the project stands at Rs 2100.6 crore and the share of the state government, Cidco and NMC will be Rs 255 crore. The Central government will provide Rs 707 crore, and Rs 1,161 crore will be raised through loans. Had it not been for Corona’s intervention, the agency would have been appointed by now, and the work would have actually begun.
“The municipal bus service in Nashik has been started and the IT Park has been inaugurated by Union Minister Narayan Rane. Similarly, Rs 2,000 crore has been sanctioned by the Centre for Namami Gode, while the development of NMC plots will be done on a BOT basis. Similarly, it has been demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself should inaugurate the proposed Neo-Metro project.” – Mayor Satish Kulkarni