The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has completed track laying work on Metro Line 2A (Dahisar to DN Nagar) and 7 (Dahisar East to Andheri East) except on 500 metres said an official, who did not wish to be named.
He added that the trackwork has been finished on Line 7 and just the 500 metres work is remaining on Metro Line 2A which will be done in a fortnight.
The MMRDA, which is the nodal agency appointed by the state government to carry out metro work in the MMR is presently constructing nearly 180kms of a vast network, of which the Metro Line 2A and 7 are expected to begin by this year.
However, the wait for Phase 1 (Dahanukarwadi and Aarey) on both these lines may extend further as clearance certification from offices under union ministry control is awaited.
The Free Press Journal has been writing about these two metro work progress from the onset. The MMRDA is currently carrying out a dynamic trial run on 20 kilometres stretch and already research, design and standards organisation (RDSO) team visited and inspected the particular stretch trial run.
When the official was asked about this stretch to be open to the public? He replied, "It entirely now depends on the clearance certificate issued by the RDSO. Moreover, after this, another clearance certification by the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) is required. Only then, the commercial operations can be initiated."
The other corridors which MMRDA is constructing are Metro Line 2B (D N Nagar to Mandale), Metro Line 4 & 4A (Wadala-Kasarvadavali--Gaimukh), Metro Line 5 (Thane to Kalyan), Metro Line 6 (Swami Samarth Nagar to Vikhroli), and Metro Line 9 (Andheri to CSIA and Dahisar to Mira Bhayander).
The civil works of all these metro lines have already begun and are expected to be ready by 2022-2024, according to the MMRDA.
Meanwhile, the MMRDA has also initiated the process for depot proposed at the new location at Rai Murdhe in Bhayandar for Metro Line 7, 7A and 9.
Earlier, the depot of only Line 7 was proposed on Airports Authority of India (AAI) land at Dahisar. The official informed, "A letter of land acquisition has been sent to the collector. Their office will do the land acquisition and MMRDA will pay the compensation since it is privately owned land. Once it is done, the other works for depot construction can be initiated."
