Save our Suburbs: 12/01/2010

METRO LINE – 1 – VERSOVA – ANDHERI – GHATKOPAR ROUTE

RESPONSE ON TODAY’S (6^TH DECEMBER 2010) ARTICLE IN DNA

“METRO IN 2011 FARFETCHED”

Skywalks abandoned by MMRDA after destroying streets of suburban Mumbai. Yet no question asked. Very soon we may see similar fate of Metro Rail after crippling our lives on the arterial roads of our city.

We have all forgotten December 2010 deadline for Metro – 1 without questioning MMRDA or MMOPL ? Soon we shall forget June 2011 deadline and may be forced to accept monstrous and horrendous structures as antiques, in the middle of roads, for rest of our lives.

Now it is proved that the authorities who have 26% stake in the project, has been misappropriating exchequer’s funds in the name of “Public interest”.

The ongoing work as per the report in DNA, it can be easily concluded that the actual Civil Work done till date on this project cannot be more than 15%. The time and money spend on this Elevated Metro routes is going to surpass that of Underground Metro, if ever it sees the light of the day.

Remember, any Rail based transport project are designed for at least a 100 years which should benefit even our great grand children. British regime constructed Railways in Bombay before our grandparents were born! Therefore it is inevitable to construct underground Metro in dense, congested and over developed city like our Suburbs. Cost and time are secondary for such vital Projects.

In the mean time let there be public debate about what should be the punishment to all those in authorities for deliberately misleading the public trust and giving false hopes all the time in the guise of “Public Interest”?

NITIN KILLAWALA: ARCHITECT

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Article Link

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_metro-in-2011-far-fetched-but-mmrda-says-all-is-well_1477213
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Metro in 2011 far-fetched, but MMRDA says all is well

Published: Monday, Dec 6, 2010, 2:22 IST
By Ninad Siddhaye | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Will Mumbai see its first metro in 2011? The official answer to this question remains “Yes. Either by June or October 2011.” However, reality seems to be quite different. DNA has copies of the past three months’ progress reports of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) corridor that suggest that a huge amount of work still needs to be carried out by the Mumbai Metro One Pvt ltd (MMOPL) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

One of the basic constraints remains the Right Of Way (RoW) where the clear road is to be provided by MMRDA to MMOPL for constructing the metro route. Until October 2010, MMRDA was still to provide 770 m of RoW to the MMOPL for carrying out metro-related work. This physical handover includes area in Old Nagardas road to Teli Gulli, portions of Cardinal Gracious road, Mahakali Caves road, Weight Bridge and Glass Traders area, Asalfa Station (Subhash Nagar) area, area near start of Asalfa station and a Shiv Sena shakha close to it. This RoW was one km in August and September.

Reports of August, September and October submitted by MMOPL (A special project vehicle between Reliance Infrastructure and Veolia Transport-France in which MMRDA has 26% stake) to MMRDA indicate that claims made by the state and Reliance are nothing but an eyewash. The reports, copies of which are with DNA, show that till October 2010, of the total 766 U girders (A U shaped cement construction on top of the pier of the elevated metro) of the 11-km odd route, casting of only 267 has been completed, while only 182 have been erected so far.

Even when the construction is on in full swing, one can only launch 40 to 50 girders per month, clearly showing that the civil work is at a snail’s pace contrary to claims made by MMOPL as well as MMRDA.

When asked about the progress report indicating delays, MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said that the authority was committed on completing the first metro within the year 2011.

If the slow pace of erecting of the U girders is one concern, the Andheri rail over-bridge is yet another area.

Though officials have been claiming that the Western Railway (WR) has, in principle, cleared the construction of the approximately 180-m bridge, there is no clarity over the period needed in which the WR will give a ‘power block’ for construction.

According to sources in the authority, as many as 70 power blocks are needed for the construction of the bridge. However, with the WR officials not being able to give the clearance in time, the construction is bound to go beyond October 2011, as the construction period for the bridge is at least 10 months.