A day after Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government’s newly cabinet expanded, in its first meeting ever, on Wednesday, August 10, they approved an additional expenditure of INR 10,269 crores for the probable underground Mumbai Metro Line 3 project.
While speaking to reporters after the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis made this announcement.
Taking a dig at the Attacking the MVA government, he said that hardly any construction work was carried out during their regime. Therefore, the cost of Mumbai Metro Line 3 has increased on account of almost no construction undertaken in the last two years.
Explaining the bifurcation of the cost, Fadnavis further mentioned that the original cost of the project was INR 23,136 crores, which has now gone up to INR 33,405 crores (total rise INR 10,269 crores). For this, the state is going to request the Union government to contribute from its corpus for the completion of the project.
Of the total cost, the state was supposed to spend INR 2,402 crores earlier, however, it has now increased to INR 3,699 crores. The cabinet instructed the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) to transfer INR 1,297 crores (the difference in cost) to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation as part of the INR 10,269 crore funding, he added.
For those unversed, the Metro Line 3 is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It would now increase its contribution from INR 13,235 crores to INR 19,924 crores. The Cabinet cleared a proposal to make a fresh demand to JICA to increase its loan amount, Fadnavis said.
The 33.5-km-long corridor running along Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ (starting in south Mumbai and ending in suburban Andheri) will have 26 underground stations and one at-grade. Once operational, people can travel from Colaba (in south Mumbai) to the international airport in suburban Mumbai in 50 minutes, he said.
If reports are to be believed, by 2031, some 17 lakh passengers will travel by the Metro Line 3 every day.
Fadnavis further shared that the tunnel work has been completed 98.6 per cent, while 82.6 per cent work on stations, too, has been done. Acquisition of 73.14 hectares of government land and another 2.56 hectares of private land has also been completed.
It is pertinent to note that this was the first cabinet meeting after its expansion on Tuesday, August 9, when 18 new members - nine each of the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the BJP - were inducted.
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