Modi inaugurates 23 km Pune Metro Pink Line, lays foundation for Phase II

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Pune Metro Line 3, the 23.3 km elevated Pink Line, by video link on 3 November. Passenger services are scheduled to begin the following day. The line runs from Maan in the Hinjewadi IT hub to the District Court station at Shivajinagar and has 23 stations. It was built under a public-private partnership by a joint venture of Tata and Siemens at a cost of more than ₹8,300 crore.

Modi also laid the foundation stone for four new corridors under Phase II. Those corridors are estimated to cost around ₹21,800 crore in total. He noted that India’s operational metro network has grown from 248 km before 2014 to about 1,200 km, and that metro services now run in 26 cities compared with five in 2014. More than one crore people travel by metro daily, he said.

Line details and operations

The Pink Line is intended to cut travel time between the IT hub and the central business district roughly in half. End-to-end journey time is projected at 45 minutes. Peak-hour frequency is every 5½ minutes; off-peak is every 10 minutes. Alstom supplied 22 three-car Metropolis trainsets built at its Sri City plant. Each set has a capacity of about 1,000 passengers, a design speed of 95 km/h and an operating speed of 85 km/h. Siemens Mobility provided the railway systems under a ₹9 billion turnkey contract signed in 2022.

Keolis holds a 10-year operating contract. Nearly 100 drivers have been recruited; all are women. About 30 percent of the line’s electricity is expected to come from solar power. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the line would reduce daily travel time for thousands of commuters on the busy Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar route.

Phase II and national context

Phase II comprises Lines 2A, 2B, 4 and 4A. The corridors cover residential, commercial and IT areas and are projected to extend the Pune network toward the proposed Purandar airport. Fadnavis said the additions would bring the city’s total metro length to about 120 km. The foundation-stone ceremony took place on the same day as the Pink Line inauguration.

Modi described metro public-private partnerships as a model whose success gives further momentum to the country’s progress. He linked the expansion to the goal of easing living and transportation for the urban middle class. The 1,200 km national figure and the rise from five to 26 cities are the numbers he cited; independent verification of the exact current operational length was not part of the 3 November announcements.

Immediate effect

Services on the Pink Line start on 4 November. The first passengers will travel the 23.3 km elevated route with women drivers at the controls. Construction of the four Phase II corridors has not yet begun; only the foundation stones have been laid. The verified developments on 3 November are the inauguration of the Pink Line, the announcement of its operating parameters, and the foundation-stone ceremony for the next phase.