Govt approves construction of 33.5 km Mumbai metro corridor

The government has given its approval for the construction of a 33.5 km-long metro corridor in Mumbai which would run from Colaba to Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) via Bandra.
The approval for the corridor, which is also known as Mumbai Metro Line-3, was given at a meeting of the Union Cabinet held yesterday evening.
The total completion cost of the project is estimated at Rs 23,136 crore and the line through its total length of 33.5 km will be underground. The gauge would be standard gauge, as per the Detailed Project Report (DPR).
The project is scheduled to be completed in six years by March 2019 from the date of start of work in the financial year 2013-14.

An official statement released here said that the Cabinet had also approved the conversion of the existing state level Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) - Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) into a joint venture company of the Government of India (GoI) and Government of Maharashtra (GoM), with equity participation on 50:50 basis.
MMRC is the agency which would be implementing the line three metro corridor. The joint ownership company will continue to be named as MMRC and has been created on a similar pattern as the Delhi Metro, Bangalore Metro, Chennai Metro and Kochi Metro.
The promoters of MMRC, the Government of India and the Maharashtra government would nominate five Directors each to the Board of Directors of the SPV, which shall have 10 nominee Directors.

The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development will be the ex-officio Chairman of the Board, the statement said.