Pune Metro requests land for newly proposed Balaji Nagar station as part of Swargate to Katraj extension
While Balaji Nagar wasn’t included in the original plan, it has now been proposed as part of the said extension
The Pune Metro has requested a land parcel from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the newly proposed Balaji Nagar metro station as part of the Swargate to Katraj extension of Pune Metro line 1. While Balaji Nagar wasn’t included in the original plan, it has now been proposed as part of the said extension.
Atul Gadgil, director (works) of the Pune Metro, said, “We have demanded land for four metro stations for the Swargate to Katraj metro extension. Earlier, there were three stations and now, we have decided to introduce another station at Balaji Nagar and for that, we have demanded roadside land near Bharati Vidyapeeth. There is adequate distance of more than 500 metres between Padmavati and Bharati Vidyapeeth (Balaji Nagar station).”
“After getting the land, we will approach the union government and submit a proposal for an extra station. We will get permission from the union government,” Gadgil said.
Rajendra Thorat, deputy engineer of the land and estate department of the PMC, said, “We received two letters from the Pune Metro for metro stations. In the first letter, the Pune Metro demanded land for three stations and later, it demanded land for the fourth station. All these lands are road side and footpath. Therefore, we forwarded the letters to the road department to seek its opinion.”
Last month, the union cabinet approved the Swargate to Katraj underground extension of the existing Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to Swargate metro line of the Pune Metro phase 1. The approval came ahead of the assembly polls, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in a virtual ceremony on September 29.
In August, the Pune Metro had written a letter to the PMC and demanded a 603.59 square metre land parcel at Market Yard Gultekdi; a 1,170.51 square metre parcel at Padmavati; and a 1,061.75 square metre parcel at Katraj for three metro stations. A month later in September, the Pune Metro wrote another letter to the PMC land and estate department, and requested an additional 450.27 square metre of land for the Balaji Nagar metro station.
In the union cabinet-approved plan, three stations including Market Yard, Padmavati and Katraj were mentioned but the public, local representatives and Pune Metro decided to introduce a fourth station between Katraj and Padmavati at Balaji Nagar.