On Maharashtra Day, state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan flagged off the trial run of the state’s first Metro Railway, on a 3-km stretch from Versova to Azad Nagar in Andheri, a Mumbai suburb.
The 11.4-km Versova-Ghatkopar corridor will provide a critical east-west link and is estimated to reduce travel time from the current 90 minutes to just 20.
“The trials will continue for the next few months in order to get a safety certificate from the commissioner of railway safety. We expect the first phase from Versova to Airport Road to start around September and the second phase from Airport Road to Ghatkopar by the year end.
“The construction of this particular corridor posed many questions such as unmapped underground utilities, congested areas and traffic snarls. It has been a challenging task to say the least,” said the chief minister. The Versova-Ghatkopar stretch is built by a Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium on behalf of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) at a cost of Rs.2,356 crore.
“MMRDA will be inaugurating various projects this year such as Mono Rail, Eastern Freeway, Sahar Elevated Road, Milan Rail overbridge, Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road, a flyover at Amar Mahal junction to ease bottlenecks. Put together, these projects will provide a 24-km-long additional roadway,” added Chavan. The Mumbai Metro project is already over a year behind schedule.
The Versova-Ghatkopar line will be operational by December. But a part of it, between Versova and airport, may be inaugurated by September, said Chavan, adding the Metro might be extended till Thane.
The Metro will carry about four lakh passengers a day.
Chavan also informed that the tendering process for the 22-km long, Rs.9,630-crore Mumbai Trans Harbour Link is nearing completion and the actual construction is likely to begin this year. He also said that the state has decided, in principle, to back the elevated railway corridor from Oval Maidan to Virar, a . Rs.23,000-crore project.
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