Construction activity on the first Metro Rail of Mumbai between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar, which was stalled following the September 4 accident at the Airport Station, has cost the authorities dearly.
The full-fledged trial runs for the first Metro Rail that was to happen in September this year, has been delayed further by the Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL).
An MMRDA official confirmed that the trial runs had been delayed due to the mishap.
“After a staircase at Airport Station collapsed on September 4, work had to be suspended on the entire 11 km-long corridor; a safety audit is currently being conducted. Once the audit is ready, construction work on the project will resume,” the MMRDA official said. The safety audit is likely to be completed within a week’s time.
The official added, “A schedule for the Metro Rail trial runs will be prepared in the coming fortnight. These test runs are yet to take off.”
The official, however, did not rule out the possibility of the trial runs starting from the third week of October. The initial
few tests that will be carried out, will include track testing, checking of brakes etc. Initially, trials will be carried out between the car depot and Indian Oil Junction in Andheri (west), that is a stretch of barely two kilometres.
Last month, MMOPL had conducted runs within the DN Nagar car depot, which, officials said “cannot be considered as trial runs”.
The original project completion deadline was March 2012, which was later pushed ahead by a year. Several problems have been plaguing the Metro project, including the issue of Right of Way for the corridor.