Mumbai: The eagerly awaited Mumbai Metro, the first one for this city, kicked off on Sunday even though a technical glitch left the train stranded at Jagruti Station for half an hour before the final Ghatkopar stop.
Apart from this initial snag, the commencement of operations left Mumbai residents with a sense of relief as Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan launched the line after threatening to boycott the inauguration since Reliance Infrastructure (RInfra), which executed the project, wanted to hike the fares.
However, along with RInfra Chairman Anil Ambani and his wife Tina, Chavan waved the green flag to begin operations of the metro that missed 10 deadlines from July 10 to May 2014 and took nearly eight years to complete.
Now that it’s here, it’s the commuters who are thrilled that a 90-minute journey from the eastern to western suburbs would now be covered in 21 minutes. This newest addition to Mumbai’s transport line, called the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line, will stop at 12 stations. These areas were initially not covered by the suburban railway network that continues to be the lifeline of the city.
The line was opened to the public at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
“The launch of metro services will revolutionise the commutation of Mumbaikars,” said Chavan after the launch. He said there was no dispute over the services but emphasised that any fare change would have to get clearance from the fare fixation committee.
He said he hoped the issue would be resolved through the court. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has already moved the Bombay High Court against the hike and the matter would come up for hearing on Monday.
The present fare is between Rs9-Rs13 (Dh0.5-Dh0.8) while the RInfra wants to increase it from Rs10 to Rs40. A promotional fare of Rs10 will be applicable for a month.
The Mumbai Metro One Private Limited will operate 200-250 services a day, carrying 375 passengers per coach, while the entire train can transport 1,500 passengers.
This is just the Phase I of the three phases of the metro lines planned for the city. The Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor of Metro Line 2 begins from the northern suburbs and stretches up to Mankhurd in the east. The route length of 31.8km is planned as elevated for its entire length having 27 metro stations.
The 32.50 Metro Line 3, the most ambitious of all, is from the business district of Nariman Point in South Mumbai to SEEPZ, connecting the special economic and industrial zones and the international airport, in the suburbs. It is expected to be fully underground and will have 27 stations.
With no blueprint ready for these two lines, Phase II and III may be a pipe dream for some years to come.
