Work on second metro line to begin tomorrow

The work on the 30-km second metro line in the city, connecting northern suburb Charkop and Mankhurd in the east, will begin tomorrow, with President Partibha Patil performing the bhumipujan.

The Rs 2,300-crore project would be developed by a consortium led by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure and Canada’s SNC-Lavalin on Build-Operate-Transfer basis.

The corridor will connect areas which did not have rail-based mass transport and has 27 stations. It is expected to be operational by 2015, Reliance Infrastructure had earlier said.

The Government of India and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will provide Rs 1,532 crore and Rs 766 crore respectively, as viability gap funding for the project.

 

MMRDA plans to develop 146.5 km of metro network in three phases. In the first phase, it plans to build the metro line between Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar, Charkop-Bandra-Mankurd in second phase while Colaba-Bandra line will be built in the third phase.

Work on the 11-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar route is already on and is likely to be completed by September 2010.

Maharashtra Governor S C Jamir, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, among others, are expected to be present in the bhumipujan ceremony tomorrow.