Mumbai Metro 2A, 7 to be fully operational from January 2022

Two under-construction metro lines of the Mumbai Metro—Metro-7 (Dahanukar Wadi to Aarey) and Metro-2A (Dahisar-Aarey) are set to start operations from January 2022. RA Rajeev, MMRDA Chief, told the media that the trial runs on both lines will commence from Monday. On Monday, Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will launch the trial run. Metro-2A links Dahisar to DN Nagar with 16 stations in between, while Metro-7 will join Dahisar (East) with Andheri (East) and would have 13 stations in between. The two lines will offer notable relief to the people travelling in the western suburbs. Rajeev said that both the lines would become completely functional in January next year. It will decrease the load of local trains by around 10-12% and will also lessen the travel time, notably. The metros will move at a speed of 80 km per hour. They will commence the trial run from Monday, and it will be accomplished by October. Following that, the first phase will become operational from October onwards, he continued. The cumulative cost for the two metro lines is about Rs 12,800 crore, of which about Rs 6,000 crore have been utilised till date. It is approximated that 9.2 lakh people will be travelling on both these lines once functional. Both the lines were anticipated to be operational by December last year, but the Covid-19 pandemic and the following lockdown induced delays. After the lockdown was relieved, MMRDA started the work. MMRDA is the central administration for the Mumbai Metro Master Plan which is intended to complete a 337-km network in and throughout the city. MMRDA is also executing the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) – a 22 km sea bridge joining Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Mumbai got its first metro linking the suburbs of Ghatkopar, Andheri and Versova in 2014. Image SourceAlso read: Mumbai Metro: MMRDA completes overhead electrification work Also read: Mumbai Metro-5 to be completed in four years: MMRDA