PM Modi asks Centre, Maharashtra to sort Pune rail row

New Delhi: With the prestigious Pune metro rail project facing prospects of getting delayed as one of its proposed corridors passes too close to the famous Aga Khan palace — a national monument — Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a recent review of the project, has directed the Union Urban Affairs Ministry and Maharashtra Government to resolve the matter at the earliest.

According to highly placed sources, Mr Modi is learnt to have informed the officials from the central ministry as well as the state government that they should resolve the issue of an alternative alignment (route) for the corridor passing near the national monument, “expeditiously”.

Even as realignment or re-routing the corridor could considerably delay the project which is supposed to be completed by 2021, the Prime Minister during the course of the review meeting, asked the Maharashtra Government and the union urban affairs ministry to expedite the execution of Pune Metro project and “complete it on time”.

The Pune metro project had started in December 2016 and is considered to be the BJP’s dream project as both Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and BJP’s MP from Pune Anil Shirole have been keenly following its progress.

The Prime Minister reviewed what is known as the first phase of the Pune metro rail project, which consists of two corridors, each with a length of 15 km.