Twitter to talks, MMRC goes the extra mile to clear air on Metro-3

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has been taking several measures to dispel the negative perception surrounding the Metro-3 underground project. The MMRC runs a series on Twitter called ‘Know Your Station,’ to provide information on the 27 stations on the Metro-3 route.

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has been taking several measures to dispel the negative perception surrounding the Metro-3 underground project, which will connect Colaba and Seepz. In the last one month, the MMRC has held three sessions in various institutes across the city, on the importance of changing the face of public transportation in Mumbai.

The MMRC runs a series on Twitter called ‘Know Your Station,’ to provide information on the 27 stations on the Metro-3 route. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The MMRC also runs a series on Twitter called ‘Know Your Station,’ to provide information on the 27 stations on the Metro-3 route. The MMRC soon plans to start another series on social media about the 17 tunnel-boring machines being used for construction.

MMRC’s managing director Ashwini Bhide, who had conducted sessions at the Sheth Shantaram Mangesh Kulkarni Memorial lecture and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, said, “We undertake at least five sessions in every two months. Earlier, it was about changing the negative perception of the project. But now, citizens are also interested in knowing more about how the project is shaping up.”

The organisation is also distributing lanterns and cotton bags on the occasion of Diwali to over 2,000 families, that are being rehabilitated for the project.

Since its inception, the MMRC has found itself amid controversies. The MMRC had locked horns with green activists over the construction of a car depot for the Metro in Aarey, Mumbai’s lone surviving green zone.

Activist Zoru Bhatena said, “The problem is not with the project, it is the execution. I visited sites where the trees cut for the project are transplanted. Most of them are already dead.”

The project also had upset the Parsi community who are seeking a change in the route’s alignment because it will pass directly below two fire temples and Atash Behrams (sacred fires). MMRC was also taken to court by south Mumbai residents, as the late night metro work caused noise pollution.