Pune: The Bombay High Court had ruled in favour of the Pune Metro and directed concerned private individuals to hand over 5000 square metre land plot in Yerawada to government authorities in next 15 days. This decision by the court has paved way for expediting the metro route work on Shivajinagar-Ramwadi route.

High Court bench of Justice Deepankar Datta and G S Kulkarni has issued this order. The private individuals had claimed that the plot ownership was held by them and had challenged the Pune Metro project work. The Bombay High Court not only rejected their claims but also ensured that the land plot will be handed over to the government authorities in next 15 days.

The metro work on stretch between Shivajinagar to Ramwadi is going on in full swing. However, due to the court-pending case, the work had to be halted near Yerawada. The Pune Metro could not continue with its work near the Parnakuti chowk and hence the entire project was getting delayed. The Pune Metro argued in the court that since the land acquisition is getting delayed, Puneites are being deprived of a good viable public transport system at the earliest. Based on this argument, Pune Metro officials had requested the court to reject the litigant's claim. Also, the litigants did not object to handing over the land plot to Pune Metro project.

Due to the problem of this land acquisition, the work of 300 metre stretch between Yerwada and Kalyaninagar was also stopped. Now, nine pillar erection work in this stretch will be started on priority.

The metro project work has already been delayed by at least five months due to the nationwide lockdown since March. Now the work has been resumed and it should continue uninterrupted. To ensure this, the court has said that the land plot should be handed over to the government authorities in next 15 days. The District Collector will soon hand over the land plot to the Pune Metro officials after which the work on this stretch can be resumed.

Dr Hemant Sonawane, General Manager (PRO) of MahaMetro said, "The court ruling has paved the way for resuming work in the Yerawada area. Now there is no impediment in the RTO to Ramwadi stretch of the metro project."