Work on third Metro line may start by Sept 2011
The MMRDA is planning a 20-km line, which will include an underground stretch from Colaba to Mahalaxmi and a 10-km elevated stretch from Mahalaxmi to Bandra.
Work on the city’s third Metro line between Colaba and Bandra could start by September 2011.
The MMRDA is planning a 20-km line, which will include an underground stretch from Colaba to Mahalaxmi and a 10-km elevated stretch from Mahalaxmi to Bandra. The project will cost MMRDA Rs 8,857 crore. Earlier, the government had planned to build a 20-km underground line between Colaba and Bandra .
Seventeen-km of the line would have been underground between Colaba and Mahim while the remaining 3 km was supposed to be an elevated route from Mahim to Bandra. However the estimated cost of this project was Rs 12,000 crore.
To cut down on the expenses, MMRDA has now proposed a plan where the project will be partly underground and partly elevated.
This will help the MMRDA save about Rs 3,000 crore.
“An partly elevated and a partly underground line mean we need to seek only Rs 3600 crore from the government as viability gap funding,” said Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad
“We will be moving the central government for clearances from the Empowered Committee on Infrastructure. We are hoping that work on the project will start by September 2011,” added Gaikwad.
The third Metro line will have about 80-km of Metro network across the city by 2016. The first Metro line between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar is expected to be completed by December 2010.
Work on the second line is expected to begin by end of this year.