About 62 per cent tunnelling work has been completed in the underbelly of Mumbai for the construction of the Mumbai Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) so far. According to a latest update by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), the company responsible for the metro line, for the construction of 26 stations that will be built on this alignment, about 76 per cent of excavation is over.
About 99 per cent of the project’s piling work has been finished. With this, the MMRCL has achieved a significant milestone. The metro work for the line III had begun in March 2017. Once the 33.5 kms fully air-conditioned underground metro corridor is made operational, it will cater to as many as 17 lakh passengers daily, transporting nearly 2,500 passengers at a time. The corridor from Cuffe Parade to SEEPZ will cut travel time by 60 minutes.
Apart from providing connectivity to six major business and employment hubs — Nariman Point, Cuffe Parade, Lower Parel, BKC, SEEPZ and MIDC, the Metro III will seamlessly be integrated with other metro lines, monorail, suburban rail stations and bus services.
Besides, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is undertaking about 11 metro lines in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), which are expected to be on track by 2024. The trial runs on two metro lines — IIA (Dahisar to DN Nagar) and VII (Andheri East-Dahisar E) are expected to begin in 2020.
During his last visit to Mumbai in September, this year, PM Modi inaugurated the Bandongri Metro Station in Kandivali East, which is on Metro Line VII. The authority envisages that the mass transit projects in an overcrowded metropolitan city like Mumbai will not just reduce traffic congestion on roads and air pollution, but also restrict the number of deaths due to overcrowding in locals.