Pune Metro’s Hinjewadi–Shivajinagar corridor has opened for passenger services from 4 November, with trains scheduled every five and a half minutes during peak periods and every 10 minutes at other times. The first phase will make 17 of the corridor’s 23 stations available to commuters, with services beginning at 6 am.
The new corridor will connect Maan with the District Court station, and the journey is expected to take about 45 minutes. The last train will leave Maan station at 10.30 pm, while the final service from District Court station will depart at 11.40 pm.
The corridor is being operated under the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), while Pune Metro’s existing Vanaz–Ramwadi and Pimpri-Chinchwad–Swargate corridors are operated by MahaMetro. The differing operating arrangements mean that passengers changing between the new line and MahaMetro’s two corridors will initially have to use separate ticketing arrangements.
According to MahaMetro managing director Shravan Hardikar, passengers travelling across the Hinjewadi–Shivajinagar line and the other two corridors will receive a ticket containing two separate QR codes. These codes will have to be scanned at two different entry gates when passengers change lines.
Tickets for the new corridor will be available at metro stations, through the MahaMetro mobile application and via WhatsApp, the report said. At present, passengers can travel across MahaMetro’s Vanaz–Ramwadi and Pimpri-Chinchwad–Swargate corridors using a single ticket. The Hinjewadi–Shivajinagar line will initially operate with a separate ticketing system because it falls under PMRDA’s network.
An integrated ticketing system is being developed to combine the services. Hardikar said the system could take another three to four months to become operational. The arrangement is also intended to ensure that the appropriate share of ticket revenue from integrated journeys is transferred to PMRDA.
Passengers using National Common Mobility Cards will not need to purchase a separate ticket for interchange journeys. They will be able to scan their cards at both entry gates and continue their trip across the connected systems, according to the report.
The launch adds a third operational metro corridor to Pune’s expanding urban rail network and introduces a direct rapid-transit option for passengers travelling between the Hinjewadi area and central Pune. Hinjewadi is a major employment cluster, while Shivajinagar is one of the city’s important transport and civic nodes.
Hardikar said the opening of the third corridor could increase MahaMetro’s daily passenger numbers by about 100,000. The immediate operational focus will remain on running the 17 opened stations, managing transfers between the separate systems and completing the integrated ticketing mechanism over the coming months.
