Mumbai: Although Metro lines 2A and 7 will be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, they will be available for public use only from Friday evening.
Detailing the plans, Metropolitan Commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), SVR Srinivas said that the operational time will be 4pm on Jan 20.
The operational hours thereafter will be 5.55am to 9.25pm every day. During the peak hours, Metros between Andheri West and Dahisar East, and Dahisar East and Gundavali on the Western Express Highway will be available every eight minutes. During non-peak hours, the frequency will be 10 minutes.
It will take 40 minutes to commute the 18.6km distance on Metro 2A and 35 minutes to cover 16.5km on Metro 7. The trains will run at a maximum speed of 70 kmph.
At the moment, there are 22 train sets of six coaches each in operation and six more are kept under maintenance. A total of 44 train sets will operate on both the routes. The balance 16 trains are yet to be delivered by the government undertaking BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited.
As each coach has a passenger capacity of 380, the entire Metro train has the carrying capacity of 2,280. Since April 2022 until now, around 85 lakh passengers have travelled on the partially opened lines. As per estimates, around four lakh passengers will use the services daily, thereby reducing vehicular congestion on the Western Express Highway as well as on the Link Road.
Additionally, it is also anticipated that part of the passenger load on suburban train services will also reduce, because comparatively Metro services are more convenient, economical and comfortable than AC local trains. Depending upon the distance travelled, the fare will be in the multiples of Rs10, up to Rs60.
