Pune: The civic body is planning to start the groundwork of the high capacity mass transit route (HCMTR) once the monsoon is over in two months, said commissioner Naval Kishore Ram.“The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is finalising the technical and administrative process. Other key transport projects will follow soon,” he told reporters on Monday.Civic officials said the state govt had decided to create a specialised two-tier traffic committee aimed to resolve the worsening traffic problem in Pune. It would be tasked with the planning, financial management, implementation and monitoring of three major urban transport projects.Recently, the urban development department issued a govt resolution that the committee would oversee a 64-km underground tunnel network, the 36-km-long and 24m-wide ring corridor project HCMTR and the 83-km-long Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority inner ring road. Ram said revenue for the tunnel and the ring road would be generated by collecting toll from users.PMC officials said the HCMTR was included in the PMC Development Plan and the Comprehensive Mobility Plan. It would act as a feeder ring connecting radial roads, Metro lines and transport hubs. The initial 2019 detailed project report and traffic studies were already available. The route was expected to connect various key locations like Bopodi, SPPU Chowk, Senapati Bapat Road, Paud Phata, Karve Road, Wanowrie, Ramwadi, Mundhwa and Vishrantwadi. It was proposed in the development plan of 1987.Ram said the administration was exploring options to fund the HCMTR project and a special team would be formed to expedite the plan.Meanwhile, activists and citizens have been opposing the HCMTR project. They said it was not going to serve the purpose for which it was proposed over four decades ago.
