On 2 March 2006, the Maharashtra cabinet approved the Colaba-Mahim-Charkop line of the Mumbai Metro Rail project. The cost of this 38-km long route, represented Line 2 of Phase I, is estimated to be around Rs.1,023 crore.

In Phase I, MMRDA will undertake construction of Varsova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (Line 1), Mahim-Kurla-Mankhurd (Line 3) lines besides Line 2 between Colaba and Charkop. Out of 38.24-km of Line 2, the Colaba-Mahalaxmi stretch of 10.8 km will be underground, while the rest of the corridor will be elevated. Initially metro trains will comprise of 4 passenger cars and frequency will be 3 minutes, which will be increased subsequently.

Work on Phase I is likely to commence by June 2006 with completion scheduled for end-2011and is expected to have 36 stations including 11 underground ones.

The cabinet also decided to waive sales tax, octroi, contract tax, etc on the construction machinery, as well as the equipments and materials to be used in the construction of metro rail. Further, it has assured that it will apply for exempting excise and custom duties.

An SPV will be created for executing the Mumbai Metro, which will be on the lines of the Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC). The state government and central government, both will pick up 20 per cent equity in the SPV; rest of the equity will be brought in by the bidder who will get the contract.

The two short-listed agencies for Line 1, which include two consortia, one led by Reliance Energy and the other by IL&FS and Unity Infrastructure have asked for viability gap funding of Rs.1,235 crore and Rs.1,261 crore respectively. Matters are pending finalization since MMRDA was anticipating a viability gap funding of around Rs.400 crore, according to its calculations.

Also See:

Reliance-Connex frontrunner for Mumbai metro project (17-Jan-06)

Overall plan of Mumbai Metro Rail Project (PDF format; 55 kb)

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