Mumbai: When the work on the first Metro corridor in Mumbai—the 11.4 km elevated Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor—was underway in 2011-2012, many challenges in building it over the narrow, congested suburban roads had arisen, besides the difficulties in acquiring land for a clear right of way. Groups of citizens had also opposed elevated lines.
At the time, then-CM Prithviraj Chavan, a Congress leader, made a policy decision to build the Metro line coming up next underground, hoping to reduce public opposition to the project and speed up the project timeline.
The first Metro line, also known as Metro Line 1 or Blue Line, was completed in 2014, five years after former President Pratibha Patil laid its foundation stone.
The Metro Line that came up next—the 33.5 km Colaba-Santacruz airport corridor that eventually extended up to SEEPZ and Aarey on Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR)—was underground. But it still took 11 years from the laying of its foundation stone to complete this Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line. The project, being underground, had significantly reduced land requirements, but some of its aspects still faced stiff challenges and public opposition.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the final phase of the 33.5-km line, also called the Aqua Line or Metro Line 3, from Acharya Atre Chowk to Cuffe Parade.
Nearly 22.46 km of the Aqua Line had already opened for public use. In October 2024, just before the assembly elections, PM Modi inaugurated the first phase, 12.69 km from Aarey JVLR to Bandra Kurla Complex. The 9.77 km second phase, stretching from Bandra Kurla Complex to Acharya Atre Chowk, opened in May this year. With the opening of the remaining stretch Wednesday, the entire line till Cuffe Parade is now operational.
During the inauguration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a taunt directed at the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said, “For some time in between, the government that came here stalled the Metro project, resulting in time and cost overruns.”
“In Mumbai, where every minute is precious, residents of the city had to stay away for three to four years from the privilege of this Metro. It is not a small thing,” PM Modi added.
Besides, the Prime Minister launched an integrated, common mobility app—Mumbai One platform—bringing on board 11 public transport operators, which will enable commuters to travel seamlessly across various Metro lines, monorail, suburban railways, the Navi Mumbai Metro, and public bus transport services in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan Dombivali, and Mira Bhayander.
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Why Aqua Line is a key connector
The project was conceived in 2011, while the MMRDA secured financing from the Japan International Cooperation Agency to cover nearly 60 percent of the project cost in 2013.
In 2014, the then-CM Prithviraj Chavan held the groundbreaking ceremony for the project ahead of the state assembly polls that year. However, construction could only begin in 2017, after the tendering process in 2016. The total project cost, initially estimated at Rs 23,136 crore, eventually increased to Rs 37,276 crore.
The now-operational 33.5 km Metro line, with its 27 stations, is set to become a key connector in the city, considering it links several business hubs, including Cuffe Parade, Worli, Bandra Kurla Complex and SEEPZ, as well as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at Sahar.
The entire journey, end-to-end, will take 54 minutes, compared to over 1.5 hours by road. Trains will run at a frequency of every five minutes from 5.55 am to 10.30 pm. When only 22.46 km of the Aqua Line was open, it attracted a daily ridership of 50,000 to 60,000.
When the project was planned, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC)—a joint venture of the Maharashtra government and the Union government to implement the project—had estimated the daily ridership for the entire corridor to be at 13 lakh passengers a day.
The many challenges
When the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), under which the MMRC had formed, decided to take up the Aqua Line project, many officials would say off the record that it would not face as many hurdles as the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line. The Aqua Line, after all, was entirely underground. And, the only right-of-way required was at the entry/exit points of stations.
However, as construction began, a host of objections emerged from all quarters.
The objections came from all quarters—from residents of plush buildings in Cuffe Parade, who took the MMRC to court over noise pollution during construction, especially at night; from the Parsi community seeking a change in alignment as the Metro line was passing directly under two fire temples and Atash Behrams (sacred fires); as well as from the slum dwellers in the western suburbs who wanted rehabilitation near their original residences.
“The project had enormous challenges, especially in land acquisition and rehabilitation,” Ashwini Bhide, the principal secretary in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s office and MMRC managing director, told ThePrint in December 2024.
“They needed unique solutions and exceptional decisions, which could be possible because of the support from the government and political leadership,” added Bhide, who helmed the line’s construction in the crucial, early stages.
Tunnelling in Mumbai, for instance, was an arduous exercise, considering the soft marine clay and the hard basalt rock making up the ground strata. It involved unique challenges that required boring quite close to the coast, as well as under heritage structures, dilapidated buildings, the suburban railway corridor, the elevated Metro corridor, and the Mithi River. This work involved at least 100 labourers, 15 engineers working one machine in two shifts, and 17 tunnelling boring machines.
However, the biggest stumbling block for the Aqua Line project was the proposed carshed at Aarey Colony, one of Mumbai’s few remaining green lungs. The construction of the car depot required MMRC to cut 2,298 trees. Activists, citizens, and the colony’s tribal residents launched massive protests against such deforestation.
The issue became a political hot potato as the undivided Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray, threw its weight behind the protests, despite the party being in the government, along with its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government came to power, Uddhav Thackeray changed the carshed location to Kanjurmarg.
In 2022, the Shiv Sena split, followed by Eknath Shinde’s Mahayuti government assuming power and changing back the carshed location to Aarey.
Similarly, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena was at the forefront of protests by residents in Girgaum and Kalbadevi. The protesters were resisting rehabilitation and seeking a change in the alignment of the Aqua Line.
However, the MMRC team put together a special Rs 700-crore redevelopment plan for the 19 buildings set to be demolished in the Girgaum-Kalbadevi belt, quieting the political opposition.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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