Mumbai metro to miss CM’s March 2013 deadline

Your ride on Mumbai’s metro is still a while away. Though chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said last year that part of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar metro route would be thrown open to the public in March this year, officials at the ground level said the time given by the chief minister was ‘too optimistic’.

The city’s metro project is being overseen by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, a public agency, and its implementation is handled by Mumbai Metro One Private Limited, a private firm. While officials of the public agency say December 2013 seems a plausible time, those from the private firm pegged it around mid-2013.

A senior official of the public agency said that critical jobs like roofing of stations, electrical and telecommunication work were still pending. “The metro could be open to public by December 2013,” the official told DNA on the condition that this newspaper not name him.

An official of the public agency said that the original plan to run services between Versova and Airport road station near Sahar for connectivity to the airport has been shelved... the entire route [up to Ghatkopar] will be started at one go.

The implementing agency’s officials said that the tentative deadline is “mid-2013” if necessary clearances are received on time. “Once we get the clearances, the entire corridor will be open by mid-2013,” said its official, without specifying a month.