By Ashley D’Mello  timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Work on the Ghatkopar metro station is going strong. Mumbai Metro One (MM1) officials say that 80% of the work will be complete before the monsoon season breaks into the city.
Krishnaprasad Maheshwari, director, MM1, said that almost 80% of the station is complete. “We estimate that almost six lakh people will travel daily between Versova and Ghatkopar; 70% of them will travel between Ghatkopar and Andheri.
S Srinivas, additional commissioner, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Developtment Authority (MMRDA), said work on all the stations on the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar route is on in full swing. The work of erecting median columns and side columns is nearing completion at most stations. At Ghatkopar and Andheri, it is at an advanced stage of completion,” he said. Work on these stations will be complete by October-end.
The first metro line is being built by Mumbai Metro One (MM1), which is owned jointly by Reliance Infrastructure, MMRDA and French multinational firm Veolia. The line will be 11-kilometre long and have 12 stations.
The first line has come up after initial bottlenecks such as resettling families and commercial establishments along the track as well as getting a clear right of way along the route. Shopkeepers at Andheri had to be rehabilitated and project-affected persons resettled before work on the ground actually began.
The Ghatkopar metro station initially faced opposition from shopkeepers who feared that their business would be affected. Maheshwari said that it was only after detailed discussions that they realized this would not happen.
One of the major challenges while building Ghatkopar station, said Maheshwari, was “little space to build. So we had to plan and execute the work very carefully.”
“One of the problems was tackling utilities such as water, telephone and sewerage lines in the station area. The utilities were all jumbled together, so we have to first dig under them and redo the whole scheme without damaging any,” said Maheshwari.
“Building the station was also tricky. Getting the concrete slab work done required working at night and into the next afternoon. It involved working in the midst of heavy traffic, which was not easy.”
