RE: Pune Metro Rail Planning

Date 11th June 2010

From: mdmetro@hotmail.com
To: vkjrane1930@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Pune Metro Rail Planning
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 12:04:51 +0000

No.DMRC/89/10 Dt. 8.6.2010

Dear Shri Rane,

Ref: Your mail dt. 2.6.2010 reg. Pune Metro.

We are in receipt of your above mail and furnish the point wise reply as under.
1. The alignment of metro corridors for Pune has been designed after detailed topographical survey along the proposed routes. The entire alignment has personally been seen by the undersigned and technical feasibility ascertained. However, the acquisition of structures at few difficult locations cannot be avoided for the urban project of this magnitude. The cost of the project has been worked out based on the rates accepted at Delhi for Delhi Metro lines. The cost of the project for Pune has comparatively come slightly lower due to the fact the underground alignment has been planned with NATM technique of tunneling in place of Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) which is about one and half times costlier. The costing for the project reports of such magnitude is normally done adopting unit block cost but not on the BOQ cost basis. Hence the costing for Pune metro DPR has been done taking the unit block cost worked out based on the accepted rates for Phase-I and II of Delhi Metro.
The detailed project Report prepared by DMRC has taken all the aspects of a metro project into account and it is complete in all respects. DMRC has prepared number of Detailed project reports of metro in past which are approved by the respective Governments and the projects are under implementation. Hence, it is only your perception to term the report as Paper Project report (PPR).The observations of the core group were taken into account at the time of submission of final DPR to Pune and Pune Chinchwad Corporations in the month of July 2009.






2. Vanaz to Ramvadi corridor has been identified one of the best corridors for Phase-I of Pune metro for the following reasons.
a) M/s RITES LTD conducted the study for MRTS system for Pune and submitted the reports in 2001.The metro corridors recommended by them for implementation in various years are given in the table below
Feature Agricultural College to Telco Route Length (km) Construction Period Year of Commissioning Phasing
Line (1) Agricultural College to Varje 12.54 1999 to 2002 2002 Phase-I
Line (2) Nav Satyadri to Hadapsar 10.10 2002 to 2006 2006 Phase-II
Line (3) Agricultural College to Katraj 12.74 2008 to 2011 2011 Please-II
Line (4) Agricultural College to Lonikand 25.38 2018 to 2021 2021 Phase-III
Line (5) Agricultural College to Chinchwad 18.00 2018 to 2021 2021 Phase-III
Line (6) Agriculture College to Katraj 12.51 2013 to 2016 2016 Phase-II
The years of implementation of some of the lines recommended in RITES report are already passed. However the intention of reproducing this table in this letter, is to bring out the priority of various routes for the Pune Metro.
b) DMRC in the present study got done the traffic projections through IIT, Mumbai. Initially they recommended the corridors as below.
Corridor No. Line Details Length(km) Approx. Phasing
Corridor 1 Pimpari Chinchwad to Swargate via Agricultural College 16.5 Phase-I (2011)
Corridor 2 Aundh to Kalyani Nagar via Shivaji Nagar and Pune Station 14 Phase-I (2011)
Corridor 3 Agricultural College to J M Road, Swargate via Mhatre Bridge 9 Phase-I (2011)
Corridor 4 Extension of Corridor 1 from Chnchwad to Nigdi and Swargate to Katraj 11.5 Phase-II (2016)
Corridor 5 Extension of Corridor 2 from Aundh to Hinjewadi 13 Phase-II (2016)
Corridor 6 Extension of Corridor 3 from Swargate to Hadapsar 9 Phase-II (2016)
Corridor 7 Mhatre Bridge to Warje (Line runs from Agri. College to Warje) 4 Phase-III (2021)
From the above table, it may be seen that IIT/Mumbai in their traffic study, found that Shivaji Nagar to Kalyani Nagar (Ramvadi) corridor to be taken in Phase-I only. Accordingly, this corridor has been recommended in Phase-I of Pune Metro.

Subsequently due to importance of the area and main requirement of the city, the following corridors were found best to make phase I of Pune metro.

• Metro Line 1: From PCMC to Swargate 16.6 Kms. (Out of this approximately-5 km underground), Stations:15 (U/G:6 Nos.)
• Metro Line 2: PMC Depot (Kothrud) to Ramvadi 14.9 Kms. (complete elevated), Stations:15 (all elevated). This corridor is combination of part of Corridor 7 and part of Corridor 2 except that in place of Warje, the corridor has been recommended to be connected to Vanaz due to depot land being available at Kothrud and also traffic being same on both the roads.
The ridership of these corridors as estimated by IIT is given as under

Year PCMC-Swargate Kothrud - Ramvadi
Most Likely Optimistic Most Likely Optimistic
PHPDT Daily traffic PHPDT Daily traffic PHPDT Daily traffic PHPDT Daily traffic
2011 18110 348387 19610 480860 5817 136309 10048 289813
2021 18961 397228 19699 532281 8519 212024 18244 477399
2031 20035 443849 23387 613442 10982 290516 22414 592168

From the above table, it may be seen that the traffic figures may materialize somewhere between most likely and optimistic and it may come to breakeven point from operation point of view. However, it is to clarify that the metro projects are social projects and financial viability of these projects is normally not achieved. In fact, it is the Economic internal rate of return (EIRR) which is important for sanction of such projects. As the FIRR is low, the DPR recommends only DMRC pattern of funding where Government to form an SPV and tie for the funds and run the system with Property Development support.



Pune to Hinjewadi and Swargate to Katraj metro corridors have been recommended in DPR in second Phase as these are the lines to cover mainly the areas at outskirts or the satellite city of Pune and Pune Chinchwad.

DMRC still recommends both the corridors of Phase-I for implementation as phase I so that the major maintenance of trains of Corridor II is also taken up at the depot proposed at Agricultural University area.

As regards, the costing, it may need revision once the Government is firm on its implementation and corridors to be implemented as it will enable to know the time of completion of project which decides the completion cost.

Paras 3 to 12:
This is the old controversy Broad Gauge vs. Standard Gauge. You are perhaps under the impression that the normal Broad Gauge EMU coaches of 3.6 m. width, which are used for suburban services, can be run as metro coaches through the centre of the city. Nobody will accept this kind of trains. Metro trains have to be air-conditioned with automatic doors, must have fast acceleration and deceleration, very reliable brakes and need sophisticated signalling like Automatic Train Protection or Automatic Train Operation. The axle load has to be 15 or 16 tonnes only as against 22.5 tonnes of Broad Gauge. The width of the coaches also should be small so that the width of the overhead structures will be only 8 to 9 m. Chennai has constructed overhead suburban tracks through the city and what a mess they have created. The structures are so huge, the trains are noisy and the patronage is not even 30,000 passengers for the whole day. Do you wish to have a similar type of metro for Pune as well?
The carrying capacity of the metro line depends upon not the gauge but the number of trains and the number of coaches per train which can be run in an hour. When trains have to be run every two minutes, the capacity is enormous which can easily be handled with the coach width of 2.9 m. on Standard Gauge. Why then invest for a wide coach on Broad Gauge? If the line gets saturated after 20 or 25 years, the obvious remedy is to reduce the load on the line with parallel corridors which will be more useful to the city by having a wide spread network.

In any case, as per Government’s orders the choice of gauge is left to the State Government who has to take decision based on techno-economic considerations. If the Maharashtra Government wants Broad Gauge, let them have it and pay the price for the Broad Gauge.

All your assumptions and presumptions in regard to the cost of Broad Gauge vs. Standard Gauge are totally wrong. DMRC which has constructed and operated a Metro should have reliable cost figures.

13. DMRC has given its professional advice in regard to the funding of the metro project. It is finally for the State Government and the Central Government to decide which funding pattern is to be adopted.

14. The “Metro Railways (Amendment) Act, 2009” passed by Parliament in September, 2009 can now be used for implementation of Pune Metro.

15. No comments.

Conclusion:

The metropolis of Pune has already got a population of more than 5 million. Introduction for a Metro to the City is already badly delayed. Conflicting views and pulls in different directions, which you are attempting, will certainly derail the Metro Project in the City. Metros are now coming up in many cities of the country. Pune has to fall in line with the same technology, implementation model and funding approach. Opinions of individuals are not always in the larger interest of the city.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,


E. Sreedharan

Shri V.K.J. Rane,
Ex-MD/IRCON