Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said the public transport system in the country's financial capital must be integrated to turn it into a smart city and an international financial hub.
"If Mumbai has to become a smart city and international financial hub, its public transport should be smart," Fadnavis said.
He was speaking at an event where the Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of two Metro corridors
-- Andheri East-Dahisar East and Dahisar-DN Nagar.
Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Santosh Gangwar, RPI chief Ramdas Athawle, Governor Vidyasagar Rao, state planning body MMRDA commissioner UPS Madan were also present.
"Today nearly one crore population of Mumbai is using the public transport. In the last 10 years, due to the lack of transport facilities, use of private vehicles increased by 10 percent, so the congestion increased....Our government intends to create a strong network of public transport," Fadnavis said.
The government intends to create a Metro network of 108 km by 2019, he said. "Apart from Metro, we have also got the MUTP phase 3 for increasing the suburban railway network, which has been sanctioned by the Centre. We are also creating elevated corridors and all these will be integrated," he said.
The Chief Minister also said the Metros, monorails, railways, coastal road and bus transport will all be integrated in a way that commutation in Mumbai and the surrounding Mumbai Metropolitan Region will be hassle-free and can be done in one hour between two points.
A single-ticket system would be introduced, he said.
As per the 2019 prices, the estimated cost of the 16.5 km Andheri East-Dahisar East elevated Metro corridor is around Rs 6,208 crore, while the 18.6 km Dahisar-DN Nagar corridor will cost Rs 6,410 crore, including land acquisition and taxes.
The work of both the projects is expected to start in March 2016 and to be complete by March 2019.
