MMRDA has received approval from The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) on Friday to commence commercial operation on Mumbai Metro Line 7 and Line 2A. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will inaugurate the two new Mumbai Metro lines on the auspicious Maharashtrian New Year Day, Gudi Padva, on April 2. The financial capital of India received its first Metro in June 2014, and nearly after 8 years, Mumbai will get its two new metro corridors 2A and 7 which will be partially operational from Saturday.
“It’s going to be a new beginning of convenience and hassle-free travel. On the auspicious occasion of Gudi Padwa, Shri Uddhav Thackeray, Hon. Chief Minister, Maharashtra, will inaugurate the two new Mumbai Metro lines; Metro 2A and Metro 7 – for public operation on April 2.,” the MMRDA said in a tweet today.
The CMRS started inspection on these two lines on February 20. CMRS reported many faults and rectifications toward safety standards for Metro Line 2A and 7. MMRDA claims that all major issues are rectified as reported by CMRS. The MMRDA received final clearance and go-ahead approval from CMRS after meeting all compliance requirements of safety standards. However, the approval has come with a speed restriction limit of 70KM/hr, but it may be able to run at a maximum speed of 80 kmph.
As per the initial plan of MMRDA, the deadline was planned to conclude the work by October 2019, which later was revised to December 2020. The work on the project came to a standstill due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. Even after lifting lockdown restrictions in the city, the progress on the project work was still slow and impacted the overall timeline for all metro projects. MMRDA has crossed several tentative deadlines since October 2021.
On May 31 2021, the Trial run of Metro line 2A (Dahisar to D.N Nagar) and Metro line 7 (Dahisar to Andheri East) were flagged off by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. After that, MMRDA started conducting many dry run tests and completing all pending works.
MMRDA plans to run 200 services of Metro Line 2A and 7 corridors. Metro Line 7 is 16.4 KM long consisting of 14 stations, whereas Metro Line 2A is 18.5KM long, consisting of 17 stations. As a part of Phase 1 of 20KM (Dhanukarwadi-Dahisar- Aarey), the Metro will run between Dhanukarwadi on Metro Line 2A and Aarey on Line 7. The two metro lines will run parallel on Western Express Highway and Link road, which will help immensely reduce road congestion and local train overcrowding on the western route.