As he purchased a ticket using an app and travelled in a Metro train in Maharashtra’s hustling-bustling city of Pune, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to established and well-off people to use mass transportation systems like Metro.
“The well-off people make it a habit to use Metro and other public transport systems,” Modi said after inaugurating the Pune Metro Rail Project on Sunday.
Stressing on mass transportation, he said projects have to be well-planned and should be executed with speed and in scale.
"Until 2014, only Delhi-NCR had a wide Metro transport system. Some other cities too had started...today in two dozen cities either Metro infrastructure is being made or operational," Modi said.
“We need smart and green transportation systems today…this Metro will ease mobility in Pune, give relief from pollution and jams, increase the ease of living of the people of Pune,” said Modi.
The Prime minister said growing urban population is both an opportunity and a challenge. In order to cope with the growing population in our cities, development of the mass transit system is the main answer.
He listed a vision for the growing cities of the country where the government is committed to provide increasingly more green transport, electric buses, electric cars and electric two wheelers.
According to him, there should be an Integrated Command & Control Center in every city to make the facility smart.
“Every city should have a modern waste management system to strengthen the circular economy. There should be enough modern sewage treatment plants to make every city water plus, better arrangements should be made for the conservation of water sources”, the Prime Minister elaborated.
He also hoped that such cites will have Gobardhan and biogas plants to create wealth from waste. Energy efficiency measures like the use of LED bulbs should be the hallmark of these cities. AMRUT mission and RERA laws are bringing new strengths in the urban landscape, he said.
The Prime Minister inaugurated two metro stretches that were opened were Vanaz - Garware College (5 km elevated stretch with 5 stations) and PCMC - Phugewadi stretch (7 km elevated stretch with 5 stations) .
The Metro will greatly improve urban mobility in Pune Metropolitan area, which is among the fastest growing urban areas in the country.
The Pune Metro Rail Project project is an endeavour to provide world class infrastructure for urban mobility in Pune. Foundation Stone of the project was also laid by the Prime Minister on 24th Dec 2016. The entire project is being built at a total cost of more than Rs 11,400 crore.
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