Mumbai Metro delayed till March 2013

Mumbai, June 12 (IANS) The much-anticipated Mumbai Metro Railway project has been delayed by eight months and is now expected to be operational by March 2013, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said here Tuesday.

"Owing to certain impediments, the project has suffered delays and we hope to make it operational by March next year," Chavan told mediapersons.

According to the current plan, the project's first phase, providing a 12 km east-west Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor, was expected to become functional by August. The construction work on this mega project began in 2007.

The Mumbai Metro Railway, presently estimated to cost Rs.2,356 crore, is being constructed by a consortium led by Reliance Infrastructure (Rinfra), with a capacity to carry around 600,000 commuters per day at affordable rates.

The travel time spent on commuting on this sector would be reduced from 90 minutes to around 20 minutes, thus entailing huge savings in time and fuel, besides easing congestion on the roads.

However, Chavan assured that work on the monorail and Eastern Freeway Project is progressing well and is expected to be completed by the year-end.

Chavan's comments came after he presided over a meeting of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, of which he is the head, and overviewed all its projects.