Mumbai: Marking a breakthrough, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis flagged off the trial runs on the city’s first fully subterranean Mumbai Metro 3 line. The work on the 33.50 kms long Metro 3 corridor started in 2016 and the first phase is likely to be completed by end-2023. Shinde, Fadnavis and Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) officials waved the green flag for the trial run at Sariputnagar in Aarey Colony temporary car-shed inside a 3 kms tunnel till the Marol Naka Station.Also Read - Mumbai's Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro Line 3 to be Held TodaySpeaking on the occasion, Shinde said that nothing will stop the progress of Mumbai and Maharashtra after the new government took office on June 30, 2022. Fadnavis said that the opposition to the Metro car-shed in Aarey Colony was more political than environment-related and indirectly flayed the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government for delaying the much-needed project. Also Read - Mumbai: Residents Protest Against Building of Aarey Metro Car Shed in Forest; Aaditya Thackeray Joins inMETRO-3 LINETRIALS VIDEO Also Read - On Camera: Leopard Strays Into Residential Building In Mumbai's Aarey Colony; Netizens Concerned Over Maha Govt's Move To Resume Metro-Car Shed ProjectGET SET GO! LIVE! The first trial train of Mumbai’s first underground Metro rail, Aqua Line 3 @MumbaiMetro3 runs after its flag off. The @AlstomIndia rake will run a 3-km stretch till Marol Naka as a first phase of trials. @mid_day pic.twitter.com/bQHBgYlMBA— Rajendra B. Aklekar (@rajtoday) August 30, 2022After coming to power two months ago, the Shinde-Fadnavis government spiked the MVA’s move and restored the car-shed location from Kanjurmarg back to Aarey Forest, attracting howls of protests from the Sena-NCP-Congress and environmentalists.The delays have led to a cost escalation from the original estimates of Rs 23,000-crore to now around Rs 37,000-crore, and the complete project is now slated for completion only by mid-2025.
MUMBAI: The much-awaited trial runs of the prototype rake for Metro 3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) are scheduled to commence on a 3km stretch from today. The trial run will commence in the presence of chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at 11am from Sariput Nagar in Aarey. The prototype rake had arrived in two batches of four coaches. The initial design-proving trial runs of the prototype train of about 2,000km will be conducted in a 3km tunnel from the temporary facility to Marol Naka station. Speed, oscillation and emergency brake distance trials will be conducted, along with testing of some other systems. The dispatch of the second train from Sri City will be decided later, based on the outcome of the trial runs with the first prototype train. Even though the prototype rake was ready, its delivery was held up because of uncertainty over the issue of depot as the previous government wanted to shift it to Kanjurmarg. The approvals for dispatch of first prototype rake and trials came as soon as the Eknath Shinde government came to power after Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the chief minister's post. Thackeray was opposed to the depot coming up at Aarey but the new government's first decision was lift the stay on the depot work at Aarey. The manufacturing of 31 train sets of eight coaches for the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) underground corridor has commenced at the Alstom factory in Sri City. The MMRCL is going to begin the operations for Phase I with nine rakes, for which facilities will be made ready by April. In July, the depot will be able to handle operations for the entire corridor even though some other works may continue. For Phase I almost all the facilities will be ready except the Operational Control Centre (OCC) at the Aarey depot site. This will not be a hurdle as there is a provision for Back-up Control Centre (BCC) at the BKC station. The MMRCL expressed confidence that nearly all works for the Phase I corridor will be completed by June.