CM put off by the elevated Metro after inspection

More than five years after the state government started the bidding process for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd elevated metro, the chief minister is now batting for an underground metro instead. Zeeshan Shaikh reports.

More than five years after the state government started the bidding process for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd elevated metro, the chief minister is now batting for an underground metro instead.

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“We seriously need to consider building an underground metro instead of an elevated line on the second metro corridor,” chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said after undertaking a visit of infrastructure projects in the city. The CM, along with the top brass of the state bureaucracy including chief secretary JK Banthiya, metropolitan commissioner Rahul Asthana, BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte embarked on a trip in a bus to check infrastructure projects.

Chavan appears to have been rather put off by the condition of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro, whose construction site he visited with a retinue of state government and MMRDA officials.

The Metro’s Ghatkopar station, which stands cheek-by-jowl with many residential buildings, has particularly irked Chavan.

“The condition of the Ghatkopar station, which is built on such a narrow lane, is horrible,” the CM said.

It has been more than two years since the state signed an agreement with Reliance Infrastructure for a 32-km elevated Metro from Charkop to Bandra till Mankhurd.

The project has been slowed down by various controversies, including several demanding an underground metro in place of the elevated line. The CM, however, claimed there has not been any official communication on the scrapping of the elevated line yet.