The October deadline has been breached and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is racing against time to start the 20-km Metro 7 and 2A by December. It has now begun trials on Metro 2A between Charkop and Dahisar. Trials on Dahisar East-Aarey station stretch of Metro 7 have been underway since July. Sources agreed that it is possible that the two lines intersecting at Dahisar could open for the public only by January 2022.
Meanwhile, the Research, Design, and Standards Organisation (RDSO), the research and safety wing of the railways, will visit next week to monitor the trials. MMRDA Commissioner SVR Srinivas confirmed the development and said the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) will inspect phase-1 of both lines as part of the next steps. As per procedure, once the RDSO approves the rakes, tracks and other parameters during the trial period, the CRS will play a vital role in final clearances.
The civil work on the two Metro lines is 80 per cent complete, but the roads are in a bad shape. On the Western Express Highway and Link Road, one of the main reasons behind traffic chaos of the past weeks is the work at metro stations.
An MMRDA official said the work on staircases and escalators is currently underway. “Trials on phase-1 of Metro-7 route started in July, and now we have begun trials on phase-1 of Metro-2A as well,” the official said.
MMRDA expects at least 12 per cent of those travelling in local trains on Western Railway (WR) and 25 per cent of motorists travelling on WEH to shift to Metro 7 and 2A. This would mean that of nearly 37 lakh WR commuters (as per pre-pandemic figures), at least 4.4 lakh commuters will shift to Metro-7 Red line.
On May 31, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated the trial run on the route. The MMRDA expects the two lines to ferry more than 12 lakh passengers by 2031. The maintenance depot has been built on 16.4 hectares of land in Charkop for the stabling and maintenance of the trains. This will serve as a common depot for Line 2A and 7.
