mumbai

Updated: Jan 24, 2019 00:23 IST

If all goes as per the Thane Municipal Corporation’s (TMC) plans, you will be able to travel by the internal Metro in five years.

Last week, the TMC submitted a detailed project report of the internal Metro to the state government and plan to start operations by 2025.

The proposed 29-kilometre internal Metro with 22 stations, estimated to cost around ₹10,893 crore, is projected to have a daily ridership of 5.76 lakh. Fares will range from ₹17 to ₹104.

A TMC official requesting anonymity said, “We sent the proposal to the state last week. The plan is to complete all approvals by the end of this year and start the civil work by January next year. We will have to acquire all the developmental plan [DP] roads from where the Metro route is proposed.”

A 21-km High Capacity Mass Transit Route (HCMTR) is proposed in the developmental plan of the city.

The Metro will operate along 18.17-km DP roads, six-km HCMTR route and 4.83 km of reserved land.

The new internal Metro was first proposed along the same route as HCMTR. However, the corporation later connected the internal Metro to the New Thane station and changed the route from Kopri to Teen Hath Naka to New Thane station to Wagale Estate.

The second phase will operate along Mumbra-Kalwa route.

The official added, “The internal Metro will have a projected ridership of 5.76 lakhs daily and a peak hour ridership of over 23,000.

“The minimum fare will be ₹17 for up to 2 km and the maximum fare will be ₹104 for more than 31km.”

The internal Metro will connect Wadala to Kasarvadavli Metro at two places at the proposed New Thane station and Dongripada.

It will also connect Mumbai Metro Line 5 (Thane-Bhiwandi- Kalyan) at Majiwada junction.

Experts Speak

KD Lala, retired city engineer of Thane Municipal Corporation, said, “The internal Metro will be feasible in the city only if it connects the main Wadala to Kasarvadavli Metro at several places along the entire Anandnagar to Kasarvadavli route. Residents living in interior parts will need a mode of transport to connect to the main Metro which connects Thane to Mumbai. The old HCMTR route will not work and the TMC will need to revise the route to connect it to the main Metro.”

With both the Metro projects being carried out simultaneously, traffic will be a major issue in the city. Lala said it was better to carry out projects together instead of executing it one by one.

He said, “The Metro authority has given 100% alignment to the contractor so he can carry out work on any of the patches. This pattern should also be adopted in internal Metro to speed up the work.”