What you need to know about Metro 3 project

Fighting all odds, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) ambitious 33.5km Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 corridor project started on Oct 22, 2016.

Aiming to ease congestion in the western suburban areas, the corridor will cover 27 stations and is estimated to cost Rs 23,136 crore. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will fund 57% of the total project, which is likely to shoot up with additional delays in the project.

The entire 33.5 km-long Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 corridor will be underground and would be a crucial north-south link connecting major central business districts like that of Nariman Point, Bandra-Kurla Complex and Seepz in Andheri.

While the Metro 3 corridor has created controversies surrounding destruction of thousands of trees at Aarey Colony, civic officials say the issue has more been politicised considering its usage as work experience by political parties in the recent civic elections.

The Shiv Sena, ruling Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), opposed the allotment of Aarey land for the Metro project. BMC acting on the state government’s directives had introduced a proposal to exclude 33 hectares at Aarey Colony from the Non-Development Zone (NDZ) for the construction of Metro-3 car shed and workshop.

This would lead to reserving the land for commercial purpose which environmentalists opposed in the first place.

Another controversy erupted after contractor J Kumar Infra Projects was awarded the contract for Metro 3 wherein the contractor has been blacklisted by BMC. The civic body blacklisted J Kumar with 15 other contractors for carrying out irregularities in Rs 2000crore road work.

The proposal to change reservation at Aarey Colony in the Development Plan (DP) was tabled for approval before the civic improvements committee and a final decision is awaited.

However, the authorities claimed that the corridor will give commuters easy access to areas not served by the railway authorities like Worli, Prabhadevi, Shivaji Park and Bandra-Kurla-Complex.

Activists, on the other hand, argued that these areas are home to highend luxury towers whose residents are least likely to use public transport their daily travel. They added that the rampant increase in the high cost of housing inside Mumbai has led to families looking for alternate accommodation towards the outskirts of Mumbai that is not served by Metro.

Aiming to ease congestion in the western suburban areas, the corridor will cover 27 stations and is estimated to cost Rs 23,136 crore