Hello - Let me start by saying that I am not an expert, and this plan is totally my imagination. This is a result of couple of weekends of work, but the process had been going on in my head for a very long time. I had posted my thoughts last week on team-bhp forum, and after encouraging feedback from friends, decided to spend some more effort on this.
While working in different parts of the world, I was always impressed by the transport systems and the overall urban infrastructure planning. I was most impressed by London underground, which began its operation some 150 years ago (1863). I always wondered why can't we have something like that? We all know there are economical as well as political reasons for this not happening in Pune. Anyway, let's not get into that because that shouldn't stop us from day-dreaming right? So -- Here I am imagining total 7 lines. Six connecting different ends of the city, and one city circle line, similar to what they have in London. Note that many of the stations have been placed somewhat randomly, but the idea is to connect most parts of the city efficiently and to enable ability to commute faster from the outskirts to the centre of the city. I know that I have probably not been fair to the eastern and south eastern suburbs as compared to the western and northern ones. Also, as per my knowledge part of the light blue line above is already being planned for first phase of the metro. I think it's going to be from Ramwadi to Vanaz. Hope it becomes a reality soon.
I am very much aware that economically this is going to be very very expensive, and probably won't be feasible even if it's done over a span of couple of decades. But I strongly believe that something of this scale must be planned right from TODAY considering the growth the city is experiencing and the current state of public transport and the roads. I don't think it is impossible.
Feel free to share if you like. Let me know your thoughts -- Mandar (Created on 28-April-2012). I can be reached on dreamingpunemetro@gmail.com (Note: Zoom-in the map for details)