‘Mumbai to have 300-km Metro in 5-6 years’, says metropolitan commissioner

Metropolitan Commissioner U P S Madan

The financial capital is currently witnessing rapid infrastructure development, including several Metro corridors,
the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and the Virar Alibaug Multimodal Corridor. Metropolitan Commissioner
U P S Madan, who heads the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), speaks about what
else is in store for Mumbai. Excerpts from an interview to Indian Express: 

The MMRDA is currently undertaking the construction of several Metro corridors in the city apart from the Virar Alibaug Multimodal Corridor and the (MTHL). How will this upcoming infrastructure change Mumbai’s transportation? 

It is going to make a huge difference once the entire infrastructure comes into operation, which will be in the next five to six years. The Metro corridors will create a network in the city allowing commuters to travel in any direction — North-South as well as East-West. So that will substantially reduce traffic on the roads. Commuters on public transport will also be benefitted. Though travelling by the railways is reasonably fast and extremely cheap, it is not really comfortable. The Metro will be air-conditioned, comfortable and noiseless travel which will be very convenient and we hope that both car owners and those travelling by the train may like to travel by the Metro whenever an alternative is available because of its comfort level. One major difference between the Metro and the rail is the distance — while the railway stations are at distance of four to five km, the Metro stations are at a 1-1.5-km distance. So one can walk to their destination after getting down from a Metro rather than taking any other mode of transport.

The Multimodal corridor is another project which is going to make a huge difference in the metropolitan region. To begin with, the Metros are mostly concentrated within the city, while the MMC is primarily for providing good connectivity for people traveling from different municipal bodies within MMR without getting affected by the congested roads. Going right from Vasai/Virar in the north to Alibaug in the south, one can go through this corridor at a very fast speed. So the objective is people can reach their destination anywhere in MMR within a span of one hour.

MTHL is providing a different kind of connectivity between the Mumbai city and the mainland. Today the only connectivity between them is through the Vashi bridge, which is congested and you have to go through the entire city and then Vashi, but with this, you can directly go from one side of the creek to the other. A large area on the other side is either undeveloped or underdeveloped and it can be developed gainfully where people can live and have workplaces. This will also boost connectivity with the new airport.

You are expecting the upcoming Metro corridors to attract private vehicle users apart from drawing crowds from the existing suburban rail. What are the expected ridership figures?

We have done some studies. Once these Metros become operational at least 30-40 percent of car owners are likely to shift to them. That is a big number. Suburban trains are overburdened. Though they carry around 7 million people every day, its actual capacity is much less. It is difficult to predict the numbers but we feel that among the people who travel by first-class, the affordability is there and they want to have a more comfortable journey that’s why they are paying more. In fact, our Metros are much better than the first-class of suburban rail.

Once we have this good, comfortable, environment-friendly, public transport, then the possibility of having some congestion charges and other measures to reduce congestion in certain areas can also be operated for private vehicle. Currently, we cannot impose any congestion fee as is being done in many other cities like Singapore or London because we do not have any good alternative public transport system.

What are the timelines for the completion of the Metro corridors? Which will be the first Metro corridor we will see in operation?

There are two corridors which are in the advance stages of construction — Line 7 (Dahisar-Andheri East) and Line 2A (Dahisar-DN Nagar). These are likely to become operational by end-2019 and Line 3 (Colaba-SEEPZ) is likely to be completed by the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022. Work on all other Metro corridors is likely to start soon and we see roughly a period of four years for their completion. Within the next five to six years, we plan to complete the entire network of Metro corridors. The total network planned as of now is 300 km, which is 20km of Monorail and 280 km of Metro. Out of the 280 km, about 183 km will be in progress by this year. Currently around 65-70 km are under construction. The Line 4, 2B, 5 and 6 will also start soon.

When we have 183 km of Metro construction in the city, how will Mumbai deal with the traffic?

It will be a huge challenge. Mumbai has three to four main arteries in the city — Western Express Highway and Link Road on the western side and Eastern Express Highway and LBS Marg on the Eastern side. Now on the western side, the two roads are under construction. So by the end of this year we hope the civil work will be completed there and it will become available to traffic. Then our focus will shift to LBS Marg and also East-West connectivity. So at any given time it will not be that all the arteries will be blocked. We have scheduled it in such a way that by the time the other work is started the civil parts of the initial work will be close to completion.

After the fire in the Monorail coaches in November, the services have still not been resumed. Meanwhile the services from Wadala to Jacob Circle have also been delayed. What is causing the delay?

The civil work of the Phase II has already been completed so now certain formalities are left to satisfy the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for his approval. He has visited once and he is satisfied with the completion of work, but certain documentation which is required is being done. He will be coming in the next two weeks or so. Once he comes again in the month of March we hope that everything should be fine and he may give his approval. So we are expecting to start both the phases together in the month of March. We will take extra precautions which are required to ensure that the fire incident should not happen, and if at all there is such eventuality we will take whatever precautions needed so there is no loss of life or harm to any person.

For all the latest Mumbai News, download Indian Express App