Pune: The ministry of housing and urban affairs has made its go-ahead for the third metro line from Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar official as per the Metro Act 1978 and published the proposal in the centre’s gazette.After the state government declared the third metro line as a ‘vital important urban transport project’ on July 18, the centre’s approval was awaited. On September 18, the ministry gave a green signal to the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) project.The 23.3km-metro line will have 23 stations and will ease commute in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), PMRDA, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and Pune Municipal Corporation areas. This is the third metro line to be managed by Maha Metro.PMRDA has completed the tendering process and Tata -Siemens company has won the bid to execute the project as a JV and is awaiting final clearances from the state government for going into an agreement with the PMRDA. The project is expected to commence in October.The project, set to cost Rs8,313 crore, is aimed at addressing the traffic woes faced by the nearly 2 lakh IT professionals, who work in Hinjewadi. This will also be the first project in the country implemented under the Metro policy of 2017, which aims to lessen the financial burden on the centre.The central government has allocated Rs1,200 crore, while the state will provide Rs800 crore in the form of land banks. The remaining has to be generated by the bidder by monetizing the land banks. Just as with the Public-Private Partnership (model), the centre and the state will account for 20% each of the project cost.

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