After his first visit to thr Metro Rail site on Tuesday morning, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan expressed his preference for an underground Metro Rail and suggested that the second route have an underground corridor.
Mr Chavan visited three infrastructure projects including Eastern Free-way, monorail and Metro Rail that are being constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
During his interaction with the media after the flying visit, Mr Chavan commented, “We need to consider having an underground Metro Rail system instead of an elevated one, even when it comes to the second Metro line (Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd).” The state government had started bidding for the 32 km long Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor around five years ago, whereas, the concession agreement was signed between the state government and Reliance Infrastructure around two years ago.
One of the reasons why the chief minister is batting for an underground Metro is the congestion or mess an elevated system has created on Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor.
Speaking about the upcoming Ghatkopar Metro station Mr Chavan said, “Ghatkopar station has been constructed on a very narrow road and its condition is horrible.”
However, what the CM did not like the congestion outside Ghatkopar railway station, as the Metro station and existing residential and commercial buildings barely have any distance between them.
Moreover, for the last couple of years, residents of western suburbs have been fighting tooth and nail to get elevated Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd Metro Rail converted into an underground corridor.
An official procedure to scrap the stuck second metro rail corridor is yet to be initiated. However, with the CM having a change of mind, it should not take long to scrap the second corridor. The project is in limbo due to pending clearances from various authorities.
Announcing the deadlines for the project, Mr Chavan said that the Eastern Freeway will be throw open for the motorists in December 2012. While the monorail will be ready by January 2013, the Metro Rail will be functional by March 2013.