Mumbai: MMRDA to undertake new transport study

The study will update the facts and data recorded in the earlier Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS) undertaken between 2005 and 2007, accounting for the sea change that has taken place in the city in the last seven years.

MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawathkar said, “MMRDA was formed with an intent to do development in MMR. A few years back, we had done a CTS and we have now decided to update the study, as there have been many developments since our last report.

This will help us plan for better development.” The last study was done by an appointed private consultant and was funded by the World Bank; it cost about Rs 5 crore. In a report released in 2008, the consultant had outlined many suggestions for improving transport features in MMR.

But, most of these projects were not implemented. MMRDA has decided to commission the new study to account for the increase in population since 2008, cropping up of several roads and other development projects in the city.

Some of the key recommendations in the previous CTS report were building 1,740 km of highway networks, 248 km of the railway network, and 435 km of Metro lines (see box). The entire project if all suggestions were to be realised was estimated to cost Rs 1 lakh crore. But, except for the 11.04 km Metro, hardly anything has seen the light of the day.

MMRDA has already called for a private consultant to undertake the new study, which is also expected to cost around the same amount as last time. This project will take about two years and a report is expected to come out by 2017.

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