Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ ‘ Make in Maharashtra ’ initiative will soon be woven into the Metro rail project. The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha Metro) — a 50:50 joint venture between the Centre and State — will set up a rolling stock manufacturing facility near Nagpur. It will rope in global players such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Alstom in the development of the proposed unit, with initial annual capacity of 100 coaches.
The body will soon request the state government to provide 100 acres of land near Nagpur and it will spend Rs 350 crore on construction of the unit, which will be functional in a year. Coaches will be supplied to all metro projects undertaken in Nagpur, Pune and the rest of the nation.
Additionally, the proposed unit will conduct periodical overhaul of more than 2,500 coaches running in various projects across the country. “This is a critical requirement of the metro project development,” said Maha Metro managing director Brijesh Dixit.
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“Currently, metro projects are underway in 13 cities, which will go up to 50 cities in the future. The proposed manufacturing unit will meet the requirement of upcoming projects and thereby boost the Make in Maharashtra and Make in India initiative.”
As far as the Nagpur Metro rail is concerned, the 41.7 km project with over 42 stations entails an investment of Rs 8,680 crore. As of April 30, the project is 61.53 per cent complete.
The Pune Metro rail covers 31.25 km with over 30 stations and its estimated cost is Rs 11,420 crore. In addition, Maha Metro is currently engaged in the preparation of detailed project reports for Nagpur Metro phase II, Pune Metro phase II and Thane Metro.
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