Pune: Officials of Mahametro are planning construction of 7 lakh square feet hub for commercial development at the Vanaaz depot of the metro, which is also a step to generate non-fare box revenue for the metro project.
While the entire project cost of metro rail is above Rs 11,000 crore, part of which will be raised through loan amount, MahaMetro Managing Director Brijesh Dixit said the agency will try to generate 50 per cent of the revenue through non-fare box revenue. While the cost per kilometre of metro ranges from Rs 250 crore to Rs 400 crore, Dixit said building the metro is a costly affair. “The revenue through fare is not much and we cannot rely on raising revenue through fare as people would not opt for metro and ridership will get affected.”
“MahaMetro will try to raise 50 per cent of revenue through the non-fare box so that the loan amount raised from different agencies is cleared at earliest and there is not much burden. Clearing the loan amount is also important. Our this model will be a record created by MahaMetro,” added Dixit.
To generate revenue through the non-fare box, MahaMetro will be developing state-of-art commercial property at Swargate, which will be a multi-modal hub. Dixit said the agency will get a floor space index of around 4 which will be completely utilised by the agency. “We are happy with whatever FSI the government provides and we will utilise it completely,” added Dixit.
The MD said that maximum fare of the metro will be Rs 43. MahaMetro is expecting a minimum ridership of around 6 lakh once the project is launched. Officials are positive that by end of year the 12-km stretch from Vanaaz to Garware College and Pimpri to Dapodi stretch of Metro will be started.
