Mumbai: The city and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has announced that by Navi Mumbai first phase of the metro project will be ready by May 2019. Commuters will take the first ride only by April 2020, said on Wednesday.
A senior official said that The project has been delayed by a year as the planning agency has not been able to finish the development of the metro stations on time.
The first package includes six stations, the second package has five stations. For the first phase of the project, almost 11 stations are ready.
Senior public relations officer of Cisco, Mohan Ninawa said “The contract of building platforms was given to a consortium of Sanjose-Mahavir-Supreme. But we terminated the contract last year as the work was slow and they were unable to finish work in stipulated time”. “The contract of building platforms was given to a consortium of Sanjose-Mahavir-Supreme. But we terminated the contract last year as the work was slow and they were unable to finish work in stipulated time”.
In the second packages, there are three sub packages. In which 1st sub package consists of stations 7 and 8, in the second sub-package station 9 and 11 and station 10 is in the third one.
Ninawe said that “We have received a few responses after we divided the second package. All formalities of awarding the contract should be over by this month-end or mid-August”.
The companies will take at least 10 months to finish work after the contracts are awarded, said by the officials from the engineering department.
He said “We have received a few responses after we divided the second package. All formalities of awarding the contract should be over by this month-end or mid-August”.
Navi Mumbai Metro project is divided into four phases. A total length of this route is 11.10 kilometers. The first phase is now under implementation it starts from Belapur railway station and ends at Pendhar near Taloja.
Apart from eleven stations this route at Taloja a depot cum workshop is being built. 3063.63 crore is the approximate budget allocated for this phase. The second phase has been planned in between Taloja MIDC to Khandeshwar. The third phase will connect between Pender and Taloja MIDC and the fourth phase will connect Khandeshwar and upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) near Pannel.
Ninawe said “In the first phase we have completed 100 percent works of the viaducts (the bridges that connect the stations). The work of the railway crossings are going on in full swing and those will be ready by February, next year”.
Mrinali Sharma, 35, a resident of Taloja said The local residents are upset as Cisco is delaying with the project. “It takes around an hour to reach my office at Belapur by bus. Cidco is saying that by metro trains it will take just 18 minutes to reach Belapur from Taloja.”
Cidco was supposed to finish the first phase last year. Earlier this year, they said that it would be ready by May 2019. “And now they are delaying by another year. We hope this deadline will not change,”
