The Maharashtra State Cabinet on Tuesday has approved three more Metro lines- Metro 10 (Gaimukh-Shivaji Chowk), Metro 11 (Wadala-General Post Office) and Metro-12 (Kalyan-Taloja)- adding about 50 km more to the existing 276- km Metro corridor planned across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), just before the onset of the Maharashtra Assembly elections. At present six Metro corridors are under construction in the city.
According to the metropolitan commissioner, R A Rajeev, all these three lines are very vital to ensure hassle-free travel. The Wadala to GPO line will make it easier for people from Thane to reach south Mumbai; similarly, the Kalyan-Taloja line is a crucial connector to Navi Mumbai. Line 10 is expected to complete an entire loop.
Metro 10, an 11-km corridor that will connect Thane to Mira Road, is estimated to cost Rs 4,476 crore, while Metro 12, a 20.7-km corridor between Kalyan and Taloja, will be built for Rs 8,000 crore. These are two major corridors for the MMR, apart from line 5 that will connect Thane, Bhiwandi, and Kalyan.
Metro 11 from Wadala is an extension to the under-construction line 4 (Wadala-Kasarvadali). Rs 11,000 crores will be used to construct eight stations that will be constructed underground on this route, which falls under the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT).
With this, the authority has got state approvals for all lines, except Metro 8 (Airport-Navi Mumbai airport), Metro 13 (Shivaji Chowk -Virar) and Metro 14 (Kanjurmarg-Badlapur).
Meanwhile, the state government on Tuesday also decided to allocate 21.91 hectares for the Hinjewadi-Shivaji Nagar Metro project in Pune. The land comes in as a substitute for the Rs 812 crores that the state was to pay to the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) as a viability gap fund. The total cost of the project is Rs 8,312 crore.