At a press conference organised by the Professionals Party of India, former Chief Engineer of Indian Railways Brig P V Gole, former managing director of IRCON V K J Rane and roadways expert B P Patankar laid out the pros and cons of having a standard gauge for a metro rail, as compared to a broad gauge.

"The state government had in 2006 taken a decision to adopt SG with narrow width imported coaches (3.2m) wide for the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar elevated stand alone corridor (11.5m) based on the recommendations of MMRDA under the advice of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), their consultant. DMRC had also recommended standard gauge for Mumbai metro which was finalised and the same is proposed to be adopted for the metro railway system in Pune," said Rane.

"It appears that the DMRC has taken a decision to recommend only SG metros with complete disregard to the technical, economic and financial issues and the merits of the two systems," said Rane.

"While SG track measuring 1435 mm can carry coaches wider than 3.2 m, the BG track measuring 1676 mm, can accommodate wider coaches of 3.66 m providing improved comfort, safety and higher speed on curves. SG has been designed for eight coaches per train with a crush capacity of 375 passengers per coach, while BG can be designed for 10-12 coaches per train and 490 passengers per coach," he added.