Pune’s Chandni Chowk metro work
- Groundwork began this week on Pune Metro’s 1.5 km Vanaz–Chandni Chowk elevated extension, with construction phased to limit road closures. - The project will add two stations, including a Chandni Chowk stop and a Kothrud Depot station. - Authorities say barricades and traffic police coordination will try to keep traffic moving during the build, as reported today. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (freepressjournal.in)
Groundwork has started on Pune Metro’s 1.5-kilometre elevated extension from Vanaz to Chandni Chowk, pushing the Aqua Line farther into the city’s western edge. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) The stretch will add two stations — Kothrud Depot and Chandni Chowk — on the Vanaz end of the Aqua Line, which now runs across Pune to Ramwadi. Pune Metro’s official route map still shows Vanaz as the current western terminus. (freepressjournal.in) (punemetrorail.org) Initial work has begun near Chandni Chowk with surveys and soil testing, and Maha Metro officials said construction will be phased instead of shutting the full road at once. Barricades will go up in sections, with traffic police coordinating diversions to keep vehicles moving. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (freepressjournal.in) Chandni Chowk is one of Pune’s busiest western gateways, where city traffic meets the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway corridor and daily congestion has made road access a persistent problem. Extending the metro there would move the line closer to commuters coming from Kothrud, Bavdhan and nearby western suburbs. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (metrorailnews.in) The project was approved last year, but visible work on the ground only began this week after joint inspections by Maha Metro and Pune Municipal Corporation officials along the route in March 2026. Those inspections reviewed the alignment and site conditions before construction started. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com 1) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com 2) The extension is short, but it changes how the western end of the line works. Today, riders from Chandni Chowk still have to reach Vanaz first by road; the new section would shift that transfer point farther west onto the metro itself. (punemetrorail.org) (mypunepulse.com) Reports on the start of work also say the package includes a foot overbridge for access and a parallel flyover near Kothrud Depot, tying the metro build to a broader traffic-management effort around the corridor. Officials have framed the road plan around keeping as much carriageway open as possible during construction. (msn.com) (freepressjournal.in) For now, the change for commuters is mostly on the roadside, not on the tracks: barricades, lane management and early civil work. The payoff Pune is chasing is a metro station at Chandni Chowk instead of another road trip to Vanaz. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (punemetrorail.org)
