Underground Metro to cost three times of elevated metro

MMRDA, which is engaged in setting up a network of metro lines across Mumbai is stuck up with the option of laying the metro lines either in elevated form or underground system due to objections in various localities about the route and form, May have to brace up for another fact that, construction of underground Metro network is going to cost thrice that of the elevated metro network. This was informed to RTI activist Anil Galgali. The cost of an elevated metro line could sum up to Rs 250-300 crores per km and the underground service could be three times of this cost. RTI activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the MMRDA about the progress of its metro projects. MMRDA has informed Galgali that the cost of construction for metro on elevated pattern would approximately cost Rs 250-300 crores per km, similarly the cost of construction of the underground Metro would be almost three times the cost of elevated metro. First phase of the metro route of Dahisar - charkop - Bandra - Mankhurd which being started from Dahisar to D N Nagar will cost Rs 6390 crores, similarly the other route of Andheri East to Dahisar east is slated to cost Rs 6056 crores. The Colaba - Bandra - SEEPZ (Andheri) is to cost Rs 23,136 crores, which means that if the same is developed in Elevated manner then the cost would come to Rs 11,860 crores, which is now costing Rs 35,582 crores for all the three routes, which also means that a whopping Rs 23,721 crores is being spent extra just for the route being underground specified Galgali. # Approval granted by Empowered committee Anil Galgali, who had also sought the copy of the decision to undertake the work of underground Metro instead of the elevated metro though being cheaper, was provided with the copy of the Minutes of meeting of the 43rd Empowered Committee which stated that taking into account the lessons learnt in execution of the Versova Andheri Ghatkopar Metro One project and the comparison between the elevated and underground Metro submitted the ground status report to the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit, which was approved by the Director Shri B C Khatua on 26 th April 2013. The MMRDA Commissioner Shri U P S Madan, expressed his views that, the streets of Mumbai are very narrow and congested, due to which the Metro one project got delayed and hence in future decided to go in for underground Metro rail in Mumbai, except for some areas in Eastern Mumbai which is lesser congested. His further views were that though the underground pattern is very costly, it would save the requirements for arranging land, tackling encroachments, Traffic woes, leading to constant delay in project execution, thereby raising the cost of projects further due to delays stated Madan. Total of 25 Metro routes proposed in Mumbai metropolitan region The Transport study 2008 has proposed a total of 25 routes for metro rail in the whole of MMR region of which the Dahisar - charkop - Bandra - Mankhurd, Andheri East to Dahisar east, Colaba - Bandra - SEEPZ, Wadala Ghatkopar Teen Hath Naka Kasarwadavali, Wadala - GPO, SEEPZ - Kanjurmarg, Shivdi - Prabhadevi, Jogeshwari - Vikhroli link Rd, are within Mumbai. The routes proposed for other parts of MMR are as follows Bhiwandi - Kalyan, Dahisar - Mira Rd - Manikpur - Virar, Thane Ring route metro, Thane - Ghodbundar - Dahisar, Balkum( Thane) - Bhiwandi - Kalyan - Narthen gaon, Pokhran - Kharegaon, Kushavali - Ambernath, Kanjurmarg - Mahape - Kalyan phata - Pipeline, Mankhurd - Vashi - Narthen gaon, Vashi - Belapur- New Airport - Panvel, Targhar - Kharkopar - Nhava Sheva - Dongri, Kharkopar - Dhutam - Pirkone - Shirki - Vadkhal, Dongri - Pirkone - Jite, Fort (Horniman circle) - Uran - Dongri, Shevari - Kharkopar making other 18 routes. The cost for the above other projects would be provided once the detailed project report is finalised informed MMRDA to Galgali in its reply.