Published On : Sun, Dec 19th, 2021

Majhi Metro conducts trial run on Sitabuldi-Pardi route amid loud cheers!

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Nagpur: Loud cheers rent the air as Nagpur’s Majhi Metro rail rolled on for the first time on Central Avenue as Maharashtra Metro works on tight deadline to start commercial services. The occasion on Friday was the start of the trial run of Nagpur Metro on Reach-II, from Sitabuldi Inter-change to Pardi, a stretch that holds immense potential.

With media persons on board as the metro started off for its maiden run, one could see happy faces from the balconies of high rise buildings that dominate the landscape on either side of the route. People, especially children, the sight of a metro train chugging off was a moment of joy. For many on the rooftops the sight of metro rolling on was something of a surprise and they happily waved back to media persons.

The 12 km track with nine stations is ready. Dr Brijesh Dixit, Managing Director, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited said the Central and State Government would jointly decide on opening of the corridor for commercial services.

‘Branding Metro stations to generate non-fare revenue’

“AFTER completion of all four Reaches, Nagpur Metro footprint would be around 40 percent of city and after the second phase it will increase further to 70 per cent which is fairly good,” said Dr Brijesh Dixit while interacting with newspersons at Metro Bhawan on Friday. He mentioned that nearly 50 to 60 percent of revenue of Nagpur Metro is from Non Fare sources and highlighted that they are going for branding of stations like the electronic market at Zero Mile and so on. The idea is to ensure maximum response from business persons so that both citizens as well as traders get benefited.

Further, to a question about failure of NMC and NIT to contribute their share, Dr Dixit said, it has affected full-fledged development of two depots and stations, including Cotton Market, Indora and Kadbi Square. Maha Metro has managed to save 10 per cent from budgeted Rs 8,680 crore, however, several aspects that were not covered in the DPR resulted in cost escalation like changing forex rates, price escalation due to the pandemic and additional cost on account of land acquisition.

At present daily footfall is about 35,000 travellers, but that is still below the expectations. Going by the population size, Dr Dixit said, at least two lakh people should travel by metro, which is safe and pollution free transport.