Dahisar gets on to Metro map

The Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line of the Mumbai Metro could extend all the way to Dahisar, the Metro’s planners have said, reports Zeeshan Shaikh.

The Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line of the Mumbai Metro could extend all the way to Dahisar, the Metro’s planners have said.

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is planning the three Metro lines in the city, urgently needs to ease pressure on the existing suburban railway system, which is purely a north-south corridor.

MMRDA had earlier planned Charkop-Dahisar as a separate 7.5-km Metro line, but work on that would have begun only after completion of the first three Metro lines by 2016.

To avoid the lengthy tendering process for that line, which could typically be as long as nine months, MMRDA hopes to simply add Dahisar as an extension to the Charkop-Mankhurd line. It wants to give the contract to Reliance Infrastructure, which is already contracted to build the Rs 11,000-crore Charkop-Mankhurd line.

“Rather than floating another tender for the Charkop-Dahisar line, we are hoping to ask the contractor (Reliance) to build the Metro line till Dahisar. The clause in our concessionaire agreement allows us to do this,” MMRDA Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said.

The clause in the agreement between the state and Reliance allows the state to extend the scope of work by 20 per cent of the total length of the line.

The contract was signed for 31.87 km — and the Charkop-Dahisar line is 7.5 km, which works out to less than 20 per cent of the length of the Charkop-Mankhurd line.

The terms for the extended line will be worked out between the two parties.

If Reliance agrees, the Metro will have an uninterrupted run from Dahisar to Mankhurd.