Pune: Infosys is keen on branding one of the 23 Metro stations on the Hinjawadi-Shivajinagar (23.33 km) route, said PMRDA Chief Kiran Gitte.
Gitte revealed this at a media interaction on Wednesday. He said branding opportunities will be explored along the Hinjawadi-Shivajinagar route. Several IT companies are being contacted for branding purpose.
He said an initial meeting was held with IT companies and the schedule for Metro trains will be prepared keeping in view that maximum employees will be able to travel by Metro trains. He said several companies have shown readiness to adjust their timetables, if dedicated Metro trains are arranged as per their working shifts.
Gitte added that the one-time cost of building Metro stations would be close to Rs 50 crore. The companies interested in branding will be given option to pay for the construction cost or to pay the annual branding cost for station. The stations will be known by the company’s name.
He said the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA) has written to the district collector to hand over 22 hectares of land located within 500 metres of land along the 23.33-km route.
Gitte said that five plots admeasuring 22 hectares of land along these routes will be able to generate the funds to tide over the gap in funding. The State government has expressed inability to provide its Rs800 crore funds required for this project.
He added that the process of appointing a transactional advisor to look into the legal aspects of tendering procedure is on. The norms of contracts will be completed by this weekend.
He said a tender will be floated in September and the actual work is expected to start in December. So far, three consortiums, namely Siemens AG, Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, have submitted the Request for Quotation (RFQ), which is considered to be pre-bidding procedure. The condition for the RFQ-submitting companies is to have a net worth of Rs 1,600 crore.
