Thane Municipal Corporation Picks ‘Chhota Metro’ in Favor of Standard Metro Line

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the construction of the 29-km Light Urban Rail Transit System (LURTS), otherwise known as Light Metro. 

This will provide crucial connectivity to the entire city while also adding Central Railway stations and Metro lines 4 and 5 that connect to Thane to Wadala and Kalyan respectively. This also means the proposed Thane intra-city Metro line has now been cancelled. 

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The decision seems to be logical given that the LURTS project, known internally as “Chhota Metro” will cost only INR 7,165 crores while the intra-city Metro would have cost the TMC around INR 13,095 crores. 

An unnamed senior TMC official said that the project is expected to be completed by 2025. The implementation of LURTS is also expected to be the first in India. In addition to carrying lighter coaches, LURTS trains only need 1.5m of width for a platform at the station whereas a conventional Metro platform will have to be at least 4m in width.  

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Officials said that this Light Metro system in Thane will include a total of 22 stations which will cover high-density regions like Wagle Estate, Kolshet, Rabodi, Waghbil, Vijay Nagari. The speed of the Light metro is slower when compared to standard Metro trains while the carrying capacity is lower as well. Despite these aspects, officials said that this should be sufficient for Thane and its residents. 

Deputy City Engineer (Transport) at the TMC, Praveen Papalkar said, “Thane city’s population is expected to grow to 27 lakh by the year 2025. Over 5.7 lakh passengers are likely to use the Light Metro services daily once it is fully operational.” 

The Light Metro trains will run on a standard size gauge (1.435 metres) which is the same as the ones used on Metro trains. 

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