MUMBAI
The union cabinet on Thursday approved the third metro rail line or the first underground metro rail of Mumbai between Colaba — Bandra — SEEPZ.
“The 32.5 km-long third metro line got the union cabinet’s approval today (Thursday),” confirmed UPS Madan, metropolitan commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The proposal for approval of financial model as well as loan from Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) was tabled.
Unlike the first two metro lines (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar and Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd), the third metro line will be a joint venture between the union and state governments.
JICA will extend 56% of the Rs24,500 crore slotted for the project with 27 stations as a loan. Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) will share the project cost by Rs772 crore, as one of the stations will come up in the airport premises.
To date four Japanese companies have shown interest in taking up the metro project – Nippon, Kawasaki, Hitachi and Mitsubishi. A car yard where metro coaches will be parked has been proposed to come up opposite SEEPZ on Aarey Colony land.
Work on the entire metro project is scheduled to begin from early 2014 and is expected to be completed by March 2019.