Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s decision to relocate the Metro car shed from Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg could mean the city’s costliest Metro corridor may now be connected with some of the satellite towns in the extended Mumbai Metropolitan Region as well.
On 11 October, the Uddhav Thackeray-led government shifted the controversial car shed of the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro from Aarey Colony — after a public movement to save one of the city’s green lungs.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is also planning a 45-km Metro line from Kanjurmarg to Badlapur, a satellite town in Thane district.
With the car depot of the 33.5-km Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro now proposed at Kanjurmarg, the MMRDA is planning to integrate the two lines at the site, a move that will ensure Metro connectivity from the tip of South Mumbai at Cuffe Parade to the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
A direct link between the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro and the proposed Kanjurmarg-Badlapur Metro will also connect the neighbouring Thane district to several key business and commercial centres in Mumbai.
The former metro line will also be integrated with the Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli elevated line, with which it will share the Kanjurmarg car shed, according to CM Thackeray’s decision.
R.A. Rajeev, MMRDA Commissioner, told ThePrint, “We can integrate the proposed Kanjurmarg-Badlapur line with the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro as well as the Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli corridor. We can also propose a station of interchange here that can get people to shift lines in future.”
He added, “Such an interchange will mean people can travel from Cuffe Parade, Colaba and CST in South Mumbai to Bandra and Lokhandwala in the west, right up to places in the Thane district.”
Also read: Aarey to Kanjurmarg in 9 yrs — Mumbai Metro car shed to still take over 2 yrs if all goes well
Access to airport, business district
Connecting the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro, a line that is expected to cost Rs 32,000 crore, directly to a line in Thane district will mean linking the district almost directly to several key destinations in Mumbai.
This Metro corridor will run through several commercial and business centres in the city, such as Churchgate, Fort, Worli, Dadar, Bandra Kurla Complex, and the exports promotion zone of SEEPZ.
The corridor also provides connectivity to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Sahar.
The MMRDA is currently working on a detailed project report to integrate the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz and Swami Samarth Nagar-Kanjurmarg Metro lines after the SEEPZ station, to allow the two lines to share the proposed car shed at Kanjurmarg.
The state government owns 656 acres at Kanjurmarg, off the city’s Eastern Express Highway. Of this, the state revenue department has transferred 102 acres, or approximately 41.2 hectare, to the MMRDA for an integrated car shed for the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz underground and Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli elevated Metro lines.
Also read: Aaditya Thackeray just saved a 400-yr tree. Now he must shed his Page-3 image for Shiv Sena
Connectivity to Mumbai Metropolitan Region
For years, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region comprising the city and its satellite settlements has only been served by the decades-old suburban railway network that largely runs from the northern to southern part of the city. The stray lines connecting the east to the west are comparatively new.
The 427.5-km network carries nearly 75 lakh passengers every day, at least three times its capacity.
The proposed metro network now plans to increase connectivity in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Of the 14 lines planned as part of the network, at least seven have been planned to connect some part of the metropolitan region.
The Kanjurmarg-Badlapur line is the latest addition to the master plan and the MMRDA is currently in the process of preparing a feasibility report on the project.
Also read: Gilbert Hill, a Mesozoic Era marvel Thackeray govt wants to preserve after years of neglect
We really need to think about extending the metro to virar, People travel in over crowded trains and road travelling from there is hectic.
No other option is available. Government really needs to look at alternatives. Metro would go a long way in resolving overcrowding. Also they should develop commercial spaces in extended suburbs like vasai – virar so that the people don’t have to travel very far to Mumbai.
What a great idea. For 2010.
Metro 3 (Blue line) was supposed to serve some of the most underserved areas in Mumbai. Unlike most world-class cities, Mumbai has no public transport connection to the airport. The blue line was supposed to rectify that. Now, most of the work on the line is complete, and the line was supposed to start operation from December 2021. Now, at the last moment, we are changing the alignment of Metro 6 to use the Kanjurmarg site. Ironically, the very Aarey site that this will supposedly save will be used partially to built the ramp that connects the two lines.
The Green line (Gaimukh-Bhakti Park) would have served the Thane- Ghodbunder Road area and Orange line would have connected Bhiwandi to this line at Kapurbawadi. Now that the line is supposed to connect to the extended SEEPZ-Colaba-Kanjurmarg line, does that mean that the Kanjurmarg- Wadala section of the line will be abandoned?
The less said about the time delays, the better. Forget the December 2021 deadline, with this plan, I doubt the people of the heavily populated SEEPZ-Colaba corridor will be able to use the nearly complete Blue line for another decade, relying on their private vehicles while they wait for the rest of the line to start, work on which hasn’t even started yet.
Expect the coastal road to start operating before this crucial public transport service.