Metro rail corridor faces yet another hurdle

 SC Gupta,Head of Construction for the Metro project told Newsline ,“At this moment there is no delay (in schedule of construction),but if the stretch from Navrang Cinema to SV Road is not handed over in two months’ time,it could lead to delays.”

The Rs 2,356-crore Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor is being constructed by a consortium of Reliance Infra,Voelia Transport and MMRDA. The MMRDA has to rehabilitate 515 Project Affected Persons (PAPs),of these 278 commercial PAPs have been promised rehabilitation at the Andheri Municipal Market.

Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said,“The major issues like Home-Guard land etc have been resolved for the MMOPL. There are minor changes in the alignment on the stretch therefore there is no need to remove the 18 shops to start work on the stretch. The MMOPL can start work tomorrow.”

Meanwhile,the deadlock between MMOPL and the Railways over building a bridge over the tracks at Andheri has been resolved. However,the Western Railway is still to approve the altered designs. “The approval on the designs is pending from the Railways though we’ve resolved the height issue. We are expecting the approval on the design in a fortnight,” Gupta added. According to senior MMRDA officials the bridge will be a steel structure instead of concrete as planned earlier. Gupta added that the proposed 60-km-elevated corridor between Churchgate and Virar will be made over the bridge.