Mumbai: Good news for Mumbaikars. The Maharashtra government has gifted the city a brand new Metro transport system. The state government has cleared private funding of the Metro Rail Project.
The ambitious project involves linking different parts of the city through subways and elevated rails lines. Phase one of the project is to be completed by 2011.
The metro will run from South Mumbai's Colaba to northern Charkop via Worli. It will also connect the west to the east going from Versova to Ghatkopar via Andheri. And another metro line will run from Mahim to Mankhurd.
The metro rail project is expected to cut down commuter load by 50 per cent on suburban lines.
But after years of hectic construction and extreme inconvenience to commuters the total cost to Mumbai's pocket will about Rs 20,000 crore. The question is: is it worth it?
Experts agree the metro rail will decrease congestion but say undertaking such an expensive project will pay off only if the metro's fringe facilities like parking and local bus systems are also improved.
“If the people pouring out of the subway have no facilities to get to their destination from there, the problem will be as bad or worse,” says Transportation planner Veena Balakrishnan.
The government will also set up Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation to implement the project. The tickets will cost one and a half times the cost of a best ticket in 2009.
In 2011, 21.77 lakh commuters are expected to use the service daily, 27.23 lakh in 2021 and 31.16 lakh in 2022. In the peak hours, a metro train will have the capacity to carry 60,000 people.
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