he work on the underground Mumbai Metro line-3 project (Colaba to Seepz) is moving rapidly and is expected to finish by December 2021.
Authorities feel that once the Metro 3 line is thrown open to Mumbaikars, it will help in reducing the significant number of vehicles on the road.
Mumbai Metro Rail cooperation has estimated that nearly 4.5 lakh vehicles will go off road once the service is open to people.
Colaba to Seepz Metro 3 line will cover almost 3.5 kms. The metro line has been divided into 7 packages, which is being handled by 7 different companies.
The latest data shows that so far on this particular line, 800 m of tunneling has been already done. 6 Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) are working in full swing at different locations in the city, with 20 m being dug up everyday. Authorities are now planning to get 11 TBMs.
“We are expecting that 14 lakh people will use this service which will help to reduce the burden of other public transports. This line will be interlinking many crucial stations like CST, Mumbai Central etc, said Kumar Gupta, project director.
The total project cost of Rs 23,136 crore, which is partially funded by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) through a soft loan of Rs 13.235 crore. Rest of the funding is provided by the government of India and Maharashtra government. Mumbai Metro Corporation feels that Metro Line-3 will provide reliable, sustainable and energy efficient rail network which will provide safety and comfort to passengers and cut the 50 per cent travel time from Cuff Parade to International Terminal 2.
Approximately, 18 per cent of the work is done on this route, whereas 60 per cent of total secant piles have been completed.
Passenger services are scheduled to be opened in two phases; phase 1 car depot of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport is expected to be completed by March 2021, and phase 2 Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to Cuff parade will be completed by December 2021.
Every year, during monsoon, Mumbaikars face a massive problem while commuting as their different modes of transport gets paralysed when the city shuts down due to the flood.
Since Mumbai gets flooded every year, Mumbaikars are concerned how safe will the underground metro be during the monsoon. However, officials have assured that there’s nothing to worry as the Metro line-3 is water proof. MMRCL has carried a data on floods occured in the last 100 years and a profer plan and design was sketched down after analysing the outcome.
Speaking about it, project director Gupta said, “We have taken all such measures due to which even if road ways, normal local train gets stranded during heavy rains but Metro 3 will continue to ply and will remain unaffected.”
–India Today
