Mumbai: The first escalator of Prabhadevi's Siddhivinayak Metro Station, part of Mumbai Metro Line-3 has been set up and made functional for testing.

Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) MD, Mr. Ranjit Singh Deol, speaking on the occasion said, "the escalator has been made functional in a record time of 18 days and dedicated to the project on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi."

The escalator has a capacity of carrying 7,300 persons per hour at a maximum operational speed of 0.65 meters per second and 6,000 persons per hour at lower operational speed of 0.5 meters per second.

The Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Line is currently under construction. The MMRC operated line will be 33.5-km long and will be the first underground metro line in Mumbai.

According to MMRC's website, MML-3 would run along Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor connecting Mumbai’s key financial hubs such as Nariman Point, Bandra-Kurla-Complex, Fort, Worli, Lower Parel, Goregaon, etc. The metro will provide for the first time connectivity to Mumbai Airport, Nariman Point, Cuffe Parade, Kalbadevi, Worli, BKC, Airport, SEEPZ and MIDC. Besides, two important heritage stations of Mumbai i.e. CSTM and Churchgate will also be connected through the MML-3 alignment.

The project will be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 30,000 crore and is expected to reduce road congestion, apart from reducing the load on the Western Line between Bandra and Churchgate.

MML-3, once functional, would reduce traffic on the corridor by about 35% or by 4.5 lakh vehicles leading to decongestion of roads. The travel time of from Cuffe Parade to Mumbai airport will also be reduced by half, the website states.

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