Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday
witnessed the lowering of the 1st tunnel boring
machine (TBM) for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro III Corridor at Naya Nagar in Mahim along with MMRC MD Ashwini Bhide, Mumbai BJP President Aashis Shelar and Minister for School Education Vinod Tawde. Picture Credits: BL Soni Mumbai: A new application will be launched for all modes of public transport as the state government plans to provide a one-stop solution for commuters. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, announced that the state has signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a company Ford mobility services for this application during the lowering of the first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) for Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) line.
Commuters can travel through various modes of public transport by purchasing a single ticket with this application. It will include commute via metro lines, monorail, suburban railway trains, BEST buses and even water transport in the future. The app will have an integrated ticketing system thus providing a single ticket for commute.
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With the lowering of the TBM at Naya Nagar, Mahim the work of upgrading the public transport system of Mumbai has begun as per Fadnavis. Fadnavis said, “The Metro III underground line will have a ridership of around 90 lakh passengers. Also, with the elevated metro line we aim to increase the total ridership to 1 crore 40 lakh passengers in the next four years. The metro lines will reduce the burden of the suburban railway trains as the railways are old and often get disrupted due to flooding. The metro lines will not be affected by any kind of flooding.”
The aim of the state government behind constructing metro lines and creating this application is to divert commuters towards public transport. “With this application and metro lines we aim to make commute easy via public transport. Commuters will thus use more of public transport over private vehicles,” Fadnavis added.
The Cutter (which cuts the rocks underground) was the major part of the TBM that was lowered at Naya Nagar while the remaining parts will be assembled underground. The tunnel will be created 25 metres underground till Dadar metro station. The second TBM will be lowered at Azad Maidan. Around 17 TBMs will work simultaneously at different junctions on this 33.5 kilometre metro corridor.
