Car shed location only hurdle in Nagpur metro project: CM

Finding a suitable location for a car shed was the only hurdle in the path of launching the Nagpur Metro Rail project, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said today.
"Once the authorities succeed in finalising the space for setting up the car shed, the Metro project will be launched," Chavan told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), the implementing agency for the proposed project, today made a presentation before Chavan on the Metro plan. NIT hopes to finalise the project within one or two weeks.
Chavan was in Nagpur to launch a Rs 132-crore beautification project for the shrine of sufi saint Hazrat Baba Tajuddin.

"While the Centre and Maharashtra government will each bear 20 per cent of the project cost for the metro rail, NIT will give 10 per cent of the total funds with the rest of the money to be raised from the market," the CM said.
The total cost of the metro project is estimated at around Rs 90 billion.

Chavan said that the state government wanted to announce the metro project when it had finalised a similar plan for Pune, but could not do so since the car shed location was not finalised.
The project will have two routes - Automotive square, Kamptee, to MIHAN Metro depot and the second, Prajapati Nagar, East Wardhaman Nagar to Lokmanya Nagar, Hingna.

There would be 18 stations on route no. 1 with a terminal- cum-depot at MIHAN and 19 stations on route no. 2 with a terminal-cum-depot at Lokmanya Nagar.
A major station is proposed at Munje Square where the two routes would meet.
Meanwhile, referring to the Congress-NCP seat sharing talks for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Chavan said, "The talks will be held sometime later. Since Congress is the senior alliance partner with NCP, I don't see any difficulty in the seat-sharing formula.