Transport expert Sujit Patwardhan said while the plan has a vision, the fear of many of the components remaining merely a vision was the clause that has been added that in the interim, flyovers would be constructed.

“At the end of the day there would be only flyovers and no mono rail or metro rail. In other words, the personalized vehicle lobby will hijack the public transport agenda. This is our major fear,” said Patwardhan echoing the fears of Pune Transport and Traffic Forum.

Meanwhile, mono rail, that accounts for Rs 6,000 crore out of the total projected CMP outlay of Rs 19,000 crore, remains a distant dream.

“We have not yet begun work on the proposed mono rail project and nothing can be said about the status of the project at this juncture,” said V R Patil, superintending engineer, (special projects), PMC.

Earlier, the PMC had received a setback in February when the RITES Ltd, consultant in the fields of transport, infrastructure and related technologies, withdrew from conducting the techno-economic feasibility study for the proposed project in the metropolitan area, citing its pre-occupation with Mumbai's mono rail project.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had asked RITES to conduct the study for PMC along with that in Mumbai. "The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has been communicated the inability of RITES' while urging the civic administration to look for other consultants to carry out the feasibility study," Ratnakar Gaikwad, Commissioner, MMRDA, had said.

Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi had immediately decided to involve some other expert agencies for the purpose. “We will soon start the bidding process for inviting expert agencies to carry out the feasibility study of the mono rail,” he had said. Pardeshi had also said that the PMC would try and persuade RITES to take up the specialised job.