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Ride high, ride low

With space becoming major constraint, project consultant Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has suggested using air space

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MUMBAI: Imagine this: Granite flooring, automatic ticket-vending machines, escalators, all inside a two-level railway station constructed 12ft high, or the height of a four-storeyed building.
 
Come 2009, that is how stations along the first Metro rail corridor connecting Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) will look like.
 
With space becoming a major constraint despite roads being widened along the route, project consultant Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has suggested using air space along the 11-km route to construct stations for the Metro.
 
So, unlike the previous plan of going underground, the Metro would run over the Jog flyover on the Western Express highway at a height of 22 feet.
 
The VAG Metro plan is part of the 146-km masterplan drawn up by the DMRC after it was appointed as consultant by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) to set up the Metro in the city.
 
The design of the two-level railway stations will be almost similar to that constructed by the DMRC at the Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) Metro station in Delhi. The interchange or the concourse level on the first floor, some 8-foot high, is where ticket vending counters will be constructed.
 
Escalators connecting the two floors will then lead commuters to the railway station at an height of 12 feet.
 
With little elbow space available to construct 28-foot-wide platform, the MMRDA is widening roads to 45ft under the Rs2,600-crore Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project and World Bank-aided Rs4,500-crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project. While the platform will be 135ft long, the concourse will be 90ft long.
 
The new transport system is supposed to ease the city’s notoriously crowded railway system. Mumbai’s suburban railway system at present carries about 65 lakh passengers every day.
 

City’s pipe dream  gets a green flag
 
Signalling the Centre’s go-ahead, Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy said at a function in Bangalore that that the Centre would give viability gap funding for metro projects in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
 
For MMRDA, the decision has come as a relief. It is in the final stages of negotiations with a consortium led by Reliance Energy, which emerged as the lowest bidder with Rs2,356 crore for developing the first phase of the Metro in the 11-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line. MMRDA had found the consortium’s viability gap funding bid of Rs 1,251 crore too high and, therefore, had asked Reliance to break down the estimated costs.
 
GenNext trains will use standard gauge track
 
The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), meanwhile, has decided to run the Mumbai Metro trains on a standard gauge railway track.
 
The decision follows the Centre’s nod to recommendations made by the Pawar committee for using standard gauge in metro projects.
 
Union Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy, at the inaugural speech at ‘Cityscapes 2006’ in Bangalore on Friday, said the decision on the type of gauge for Metro lay with state governments. Differences had cropped up, as Indian Railways favoured broad gauge.
 
A committee set up by the Centre under Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to resolve the dispute, ruled in favour of the standard gauge (4’8’’) for the 146-km Mumbai metro.
 
A standard gauge will also mean lesser land acquisitions - only 25 km of the proposed metro network in city is going to be underground, on stretches like Colaba-Mahalaxmi and Worli-Sewri.
 
Passenger capacity, state officials argued, could be increased by increasing the frequency of trains and by improving coach-seating arrangements.
 
Standard gauge coaches also provide cost advantage.
 
The MMRDA has already begun negotiations for coaches with Bangalore Earth Movers Ltd, a firm that supplies coaches to the the Delhi Metro under guidance from Korean company Rotem, which initially built them.
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