Eight years after the foundation stone for the 11.4-km Mumbai Metro project was laid, the first metro line opened for the public on Sunday. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan flagged off the first service from Versova Station in the Western suburb to Ghatkopar in the Eastern suburbs.

For Mumbaikars the metro line will provide relief from delays and jams caused by road traffic between Eastern and Western suburbs. The journey between Versova to Ghatkopar via Andheri, which usually takes about 90 minutes by road, would be reduced to 20 minutes.

The earliest plans for a metro service were conceived by TS Rao, former Chief Engineer of the erstwhile Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking in the 1950s. On June 22, 2006, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation for the line.

The line has been built by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL). It was created to develop, implement and operate the metro line.

The MMOPL is a consortium formed by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (Reliance Anil Ambani Group), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Veolia Transport SA of France with 69, 26 and 5 per cent stakes respectively. The project is based on a public-private partnership model.

The project suffered considerable delay due to massive encroachments on the roads on which the elevated line was constructed. It is still not out of the woods with the Reliance Group’s demand for higher passenger fare to recover their costs.

Sour note The launch of the metro services began on a sour note with Chavan saying on Saturday that he will inaugurate the services only if MMOPL adheres to the State government-notified fares. But, later on he agreed to flag-off the service.

MMRDA, which opposes the proposed hike, has already moved the Bombay High Court and the matter would come up for hearing on Monday.

Admitting that there was a dispute over the fares, Chavan expressed hope that the issue will be resolved through the Court.

On Saturday, Chavan, while addressing the media at Maharashtra Legislative Assembly had said that in 2006, when the tender was awarded to the Reliance group the fare was fixed at ₹9 for 3 km, ₹11 for 3 to 8 km and ₹13 for journey more than 8 km. This fare structure was one of the main conditions on the basis of which the tender was awarded to the group, he said.

Now the group wants to charge between ₹10 and ₹40, citing an increase in the cost of the project from ₹2,356 crore to ₹4,321 crore, he said.

Chavan said the group should get clearance from the Tariff Fixation Committee if it wants to implement the proposed higher fare due to the delay in implementing the project. The Committee is led by a retired High Court judge.

On Sunday, when it was pointed out by the media that the per kilometre construction cost of Delhi metro was just ₹175 crore while it was ₹379 crore for Mumbai, Chavan was evasive in his reply and merely said that the committee will look into the matter.

The services on the 11.4-km stretch will be available every four minutes. MMOPL will operate 250 services a day, carrying an estimated traffic of 11 lakh passengers. Every coach can carry 375 passengers.

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