CM Uddhav Thackeray to inaugurate two Mumbai Metro lines on April 2

The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) is constructing a 35-km stretch of two elevated metro corridors—Line 2A between Dahisar and D N Nagar and Line 7 between Dahisar East and Andheri East. These two new metro lines will run parallelly on the east and west side of the suburb and are expected to decongest the Western Express Highway, the major arterial road of Mumbai.

These two new metro lines will run parallelly on the east and west side of the suburb and are expected to decongest the Western Express Highway

“The two lines will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on April 2 around 4 pm and the trains will be open for public use,” SVR Srinivas, the MMRDA commissioner, told the Indian Express adding that the timetable is yet to be finalised and is being reviewed.

Once the 35km stretch is functional, commuters can travel between Dahisar and Ghatkopar without exiting the metro station as the two lines will be interconnected.

However, the MMRDA had planned to start commercial operation of both the lines in two phases. As part of Phase 1 of the project, 2A and 7 corridors will cover 18 stations (see image for graphics of Metro). On Line 2A, trains will operate between Dhanukarwadi and Upper Dahisar and they will run between Aarey and Dahisar East on Line 7 from April 2.

“The MMRDA is currently carrying out a dry run on the two lines. During the dry run, the MMRDA is checking whether the metro can be run according to the proposed timetable and the empty trains will run according to the timetable to ascertain the issues and rectify them before starting the operation. The frequency of trains is expected to be at 10 minutes,” said another official.

Last Friday, the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) gave a clearance after conducting an inspection of the lines. The clearance is mandatory before commissioning the commercial operation of the metro lines. The commissioner started the inspection on these two lines from February 20 this year and conducted different inspections on the lines a few times. The official also communicated the flaws or rectifications needed in the lines to MMRDA, which the authority claims have been rectified.