The letter of award for the project was presented to representatives of the Tata Realty and Infrastructure Urban Transport (Tirl)-Siemens Project Ventures consortium by Mr Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra, at a ceremony in Mumbai on October 3.

The 23.3km line will run northwest from a city centre interchange with the north-south Line 1 at Shijavi Nagar to Hinjewadi Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park, a rapidly-growing hub for the IT industry in Pune.

Construction will begin on the 23-station line in June 2019 and the project is due to be completed in mid-2022.

Tata Projects will act as the consortium’s EPC partner.

Approved by the Union Cabinet in August 2017, the New Metro Rail Policy makes PPP financing a mandatory precondition for cities and states seeking central government funding for metro construction. The government says the policy has been introduced to “meet the huge resource demand for capital-intensive high-capacity metro projects.”

The November issue of IRJ will include a detailed appraisal of the policy and its impact on urban rail development in India.