The idea is to take load off the suburban railway network.
Around nine years after it first drew up the master plan for the Metro railway project, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning to revise it and add new lines to the network, including one which will run parallel to the Western Express Highway.
A senior MMRDA official told DNA that they were planning to add a line parallel to the Western Express Highway from Bandra to Dahisar, to take some load off the suburban rail network and provide an alternative to vehicle users on the arterial road. “This line will be either elevated or underground. It will be integrated with the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ (Santa Cruz Electronics Export Processing Zone) line and will have a one stop changeover,” the official said.
According to the official, statistics revealed that a Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) would have a traffic demand of around 25,000 passengers per direction in peak hours. “However, the BRTS would be insufficient to meet this demand and hence a Metro is needed on the route,” he claimed.
The official said they were also planning a Metro railway line from Lokhandwala to SEEPZ and Kanjurmarg, to link the eastern and western suburbs. Earlier, the 13.14km route was to be taken up as part of the Mono railway master plan, but the MMRDA has decided to put the development of more Mono railway corridors on the backburner till the first 19.22-km Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle route, work on which is on, is commissioned and run.
In 2003, the MMRDA had appointed the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) to prepare the Mumbai Metro master plan, which consisted of nine corridors. The plan was approved by the MMRDA in 2004.
Incidentally, while the 11.40-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro rail project is expected to be commissioned in 2013, a year behind schedule, work on the 31.871-km Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor is yet to begin due to pending environmental clearances despite the concession agreement being signed with a Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium in 2010. However, the MMRDA claims that it will begin work on the 33.5-km Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ underground Metro next year.
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