'Mumbai Metro red line 7 & yellow line 2A likely to operate within 3-4 months': MMRDA

On Tuesday, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) informed that the Mumbai Metro's red line 7 and yellow line 2A are likely to be operational within the upcoming three to four months. Speaking to news agency ANI, MMRDA Commissioner SVR Srinivas, who earlier inspected the ongoing work and was briefed by the officials regarding the same, has expressed hope that the latest project will be finished within the next several months.

Mumbai Metro red line 7 and yellow line 2A to operate within next couple of months

Speaking to the news agency, SVR Srinivas said, "I do not want to make any announcement regarding a deadline as we are already late by over two years. These lines were supposed to be functional in December 2019 but it got delayed for various reasons. I hope that these lines will be operational for the public in the next three to four months and two more lines will be in service within the next half a year."

Further talking about the various reasons for the delay, the MMRDA Commissioner said that the ongoing novel COVID-19 pandemic was not the only reason for the delay as the lockdown started in March last year, much later than the inauguration of Mumbai Metro yellow line 2A and red line 7 was scheduled. 

Srinivas explained, "We have increased the number of our teams who are working in '24 by 7, 365 days' pattern now. Instead of sequential work where the project is done in a sequenced manner, one after the other, we have started parallel work for various phases of the ongoing project." "Apart from Mumbai, we are also working in Bengaluru. Some works are parallelly being done in Japan and Italy," he stated.

Srinivas also ensured the availability of metro coaches in time. He said, "We have already received four trains and another will be delivered to us in a day or two. Seven more coaches will come to us in few days. So, we will have 12 trains in a month's time."

The work on Mumbai Metro red line 7 from Andheri East to Dahisar East and yellow line 2A from Dahisar West to DN Nagar began in the year 2016. The two lines were scheduled to be inaugurated in the month of December 2019.

Image: PTI/Representative