Ghatkopar likely to see Metro trial run in September

After successfully conducting trials for the first time over the Andheri and Jogeshwari railway bridges on Monday evening, trial runs for the Metro rail is scheduled to reach Ghatkopar either by the end of August or early September.

Additional metropolitan commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), SVR Srinivas, said, “It was a smooth ride on Monday. With this start of test runs between the Versova and Airport Road stations, the commercial operations will begin by September.”

Moreover, services between Versova and Ghatkopar will be commissioned by December.

On May 2, dna had reported that the metro line is likely to cross the Western
Express Highway to reach the Airport Road Station in the first week of June.

In the test run on Monday, the rake achieved a top speed of 77kmph. However, the average speed for commercial operations will be around 35kmph.

The metro is being constructed between Versova, Andheri and Ghatkopar to improve the East-West connectivity in the city. As work on the project progressed, the cost of constructing the metro rail saw a drastic increase since it was conceptualised. While the initial estimated cost was Rs2,356 crore, it now stands at a staggering Rs3,800 crore.

The deadline of the project was revised seven times till it came to the latest schedule of commissioning.