Mumbai Metro 2-A and 7: Delivery of rakes to begin July 2020

The state government was hoping to inaugurate one of the lines ahead of the Assembly polls in October, but this is now ruled out

The Maharashtra government’s showpiece projects, Mumbai’s two elevated metro corridors, might face a further delay. While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) was looking at starting operations of the two corridors, Metro-7 and Metro-2A, from mid-2020, rakes for the corridors are to arrive in the city only by July 2020, as per contract.

Metro 7 work underway in Andheri. (HT FILE)

The state government was hoping to inaugurate one of the lines ahead of the Assembly polls in October, but this is now ruled out. In November 2018, MMRDA awarded the contract for the supply of 378 coaches (63 metro trains) for Metro-7 (Dahisar East-Andheri East) and Metro-2A (Dahisar West-DN Nagar) to Bengaluru-based BEML Limited. According to a statement by BEML on the Bombay Stock Exchange website, train deliveries will start only from July 2020.

The statement reads, “As per the contractual timelines, train deliveries are scheduled to commence from July 2020 until September 2022.”

There was no response to an email sent to BEML.

Earlier, MMRDA had stated that the trial runs for the two corridors will start from November 2019. Officials have also stated that the metros will need various clearances, which will take close to six months before the commercial operations begin. As of January, 85% of foundation work, 69% of pier construction work and 50% of girder launching has successfully been completed on both the Metro corridors.

RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “The July 2020 time period is what the contract stipulates because any firm will take that much time to supply rakes. But BEML has promised that they will supply rakes earlier.”

MMRDA had faced hurdles in floating tenders for the rakes earlier owing to funding issues with the Asian Development Bank over the Make in India policy.