Just as the work for the 11-km first line of Metro (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar) inches towards completion, the 183-metre-long Rail Over Bridge (RoB) at Andheri still remains a huge challenge for the consortium. While the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) officials are contemplating to construct the bridge in the stipulated period of time, they feel that barely a two-hour power block at nights is going to hamper the deadline to run the metro seriously.
According to officials of MMOPL, the consortium has already requested the Western Railway (WR) authorities to provide them with mega power blocks for the speedy completion of the RoB. “According to the agreement signed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) along with WR, we are getting a general block of approximately two hours at night.
However, if we continue to work only in these blocks, the effective time available to work is hardly an hour a day. Since out of the two hour block, we need 30 minutes to mobilise our manpower and another 30 minutes for winding up before the suburban trains start to function in the early morning hours. This may eventually take a toll on the time schedule of the entire metro corridor,” MMOPL director KP Maheshwari told DNA.
So what is the possible solution for this deadlock? According to MMOPL officials, the only way for a speedy expedition of work is to get more “mega power blocks.” However, when contacted, WR spokesperson Sharat Chandrayan ruled out a possibility of a power block more than what has been committed by the WR. “It is a question of the lifeline of this city. We do provide additional blocks depending on case to case basis. However, what has been asked by MMOPL looks more than realistic. We cannot provide Sunday blocks for metro work. More importantly, our schedule for the first and the last trains has to be maintained categorically. The train schedule on Sundays has hardly any difference compared to normal week day. Hence, there is no possibility of such mega power blocks,” Chandrayan told DNA.
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