After skipping 12 deadlines, Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail will be open to the public by Jan-end; construction of MTHL to commence next year
With the New Year just around the corner, the MMRDA plans to gift Mumbaikars a hassle-free commute in the central Mumbai areas with the Wadala-Jacob Circle Monorail Phase II. The project is likely to be opened to the public in the first quarter of 2018. Though Phase I has been in the doldrums for quite some time, a senior MMRDA official assures that Phase II will increase the number of commuters along the entire corridor, which may help recover the losses incurred in Phase I. At present, an estimated 15,000 to 17,000 people travel on monorail's Phase I.
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The added advantage of Phase II is that it will pass through highly populated areas of central Mumbai such as Wadala, Parel, Lower Parel, Chinchpokli, Delisle Road and Jacob Circle, thus reducing the time taken to commute on that route. Phase II has already missed 12 deadlines and the latest deadline to complete the work was in December. Also, the line was closed to public after two of the monorail coaches were gutted in a fire near Mysore Colony in November.
Dilip Kawathkar, MMRDA's joint project director, says, "The ridership is expected to double once the second phase is operational. Trial runs on the Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail Phase II are underway. We are expecting that the corridor will receive its safety certificate by the end of January, after which the line will be thrown open to the public."
Phase I of the monorail track
MTHL to become reality
At long last, the much-awaited Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project connecting Sewri with Nhava Sheva will finally see the light of day as the construction activity for the biggest sea-bridge in the country will start from next year. On March 31 this year, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed an agreement with MMRDA under the guarantee of the Union Government of India to provide 1,44,795 million Japanese Yen [approximately Rs 8,600 crore] Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan to implement the MTHL. JICA is funding Rs 18,000 crore. MMRDA has been projecting MTHL as a big ticket project saying that it will help in the overall development of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Work in progress on Phase II
Island connectivity
The project includes a six-lane bridge across the Mumbai Harbour. It will help solve the congestion in Mumbai by improving connectivity between the island city and Navi Mumbai. The project involves the construction of a bridge across the Mumbai harbour between Sewri [in the Mumbai Port Trust area] and Chirle on the Navi Mumbai side.
The link is about 22-km long with a 16.5-km bridge across the sea and a 5.5-km-long viaduct on land. The exit and entry into the six lane freeway will be through interchanges at the end points and at the intermediate points on the Navi Mumbai side. Opening of the MTHL would contribute to reducing the travel time by a good 60 minutes between Mumbai Port and Pune, where global manufacturers, especially those from the automobile sector, have established their production units.
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