Pune Metro’s Pink Line was inaugurated on Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, bringing a new metro connection to the city’s Hinjewadi IT hub. The service is scheduled to open to the public on Wednesday, 4 November.
The inauguration marks the operational launch of Pune Metro Line 3, a project developed to connect the major information technology park at Hinjewadi with the wider urban transport network. Sunetra Pawar, who is also Pune’s guardian minister, travelled on the line with Fadnavis and Shinde after the opening ceremony.
Paw ar said the project fulfilled a vision associated with the late Ajit Pawar and recalled his involvement in the line from its initial approval and preparation of the detailed project report to construction. She also described the women metro operator who drove the train as one of Savitribai Phule’s daughters, linking the project’s workforce model to Pune’s history of women’s education and social reform.
According to the report, Pune Metro Line 3 is expected to be the country’s first metro line to be operated entirely by women. Women are also expected to form the largest share of staff working at its stations. The arrangement places operations, passenger-facing services and station management at the centre of the project’s gender representation claims, although the supplied report does not provide a detailed staffing breakdown.
The line’s primary urban significance is its connection to Hinjewadi, one of Pune’s most important employment districts. The report says that a future plan will also connect the Kharadi IT park to the metro system. Once these and other projects are completed, Pune’s metro network is expected to extend across more than 100 kilometres.
The project has been developed under the public-private partnership model and is described in the report as the first major project of its kind in the country under the National Metro Rail Policy. The reported investment is Rs 8,313 crore. The project also includes 7.60 megawatts of solar energy capacity, designed to meet approximately 30% of its electricity requirements through renewable energy.
The reported figures point to a metro expansion strategy that combines employment-centre connectivity, private-sector participation and lower-carbon operations. For commuters, the immediate change will be the availability of a new rail service to Hinjewadi from 4 November. For Pune’s transport system, the next phase will depend on the delivery of the planned extensions and the integration of the new line with the existing network.
The public service is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, while the reported longer-term expansion includes a proposed connection to Kharadi and a metro network exceeding 100 kilometres after the relevant projects are completed.
