By Ninad Siddhaye www.dnaindia.com
With the first two routes of the metro already under construction and the third in the pipeline, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has now decided to go beyond the city.
It already has announced the Mumbai Metro Master Plan of nine corridors, and recently the officials of the authority came up with 14 more routes in the metropolitan region- which the authority intends to commence by 2031.
In a presentation given to the UK Railway Industries Association in March this year, MMRDA revealed these 14 additional metro lines of close to 300kms within the MMR. While most of these lines are in the Thane district as well as the Navi Mumbai and Mira-Bhyanadar region, some of them are also within the city limits of the BMC.
Confirming the development, MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said that these lines are a part of a Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS) done by the Lea Associates. “As per the vision to make Mumbai a world class city, a metro network of 450kms is already envisaged. The total cost of this metro network is Rs93897 crore,” informed Kawathkar.
While the first two routes of the Mumbai Metro Master Plan- Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar and Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd- are on a Public-Private-Partnership basis, the model for funding for the rest of them is yet to be decided.
