Metro 2A & 7 operations from January 20, trains to run entire route sans break in Mumbai's Dahisar

MUMBAI: PM Modi will flag-off phase II of Metro 2A and 7 services, that cater to Western suburbs, on January 19, but the commercial operations will start on January 20.
The inauguration will ensure that the Metro network runs a stretch of 35km from Andheri (W)-Dahisar-Gundavali in Andheri (E). Metropolitan commissioner S V R Srinivas said, "We have decided to begin the commercial run from 4pm on January 20."

During peak hours, the services will be available at a frequency of 8 minutes. The frequency will come down to 10 minutes between trains during non-peak hours.
For now, the Metro services will operate with 22 rakes, though there are 28 rakes out of the total 44 needed to operate the routes. The six-car rakes, which can accommodate 2,280 passengers, have been manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers Limited under the Make in India initiative. Srinivas said, "We will improve the frequency to 4-5 minutes as and when new rakes get added to the fleet."
The first service will start at 6am from Andheri-west (Line 2A) to Gundavali (Line 7) and the last service will be at 9.24pm. From Gundavali, the first train will operate at 5.55am and the last one at 9.24 pm. The trains will not break journey at Dahisar and will run on the entire route of Line 2A and 7.
The distance from Andheri-W to Gundavali via Dahisar will be 75 minutes. However, it will take only 40 minutes to travel the 18.6km distance between Andheri-W and Dahisar on Line 2, and 35 minutes between Dahisar and Gundavali on Line 7, which is 16.5km.
Srinivas said, "We expect the per day ridership to touch around 4-5 lakh." At present, the ridership on the Phase I of both these lines (Dahanukarwadi-Dahisar-Aarey) is 39,000 a day, but authorities said the truncated route does not provide connectivity to high-density pockets in Andheri. The minimum fare is Rs 10 while the maximum is Rs 60.