Mumbai Metro 3, linking Colaba, Bandra and SEEPZ, opens next week; tickets priced at ₹10- ₹50

MUMBAI: The city’s first and Maharashtra’s second underground metro—Line 3 or the Colaba–Bandra–SEEPZ line—is days away from partially opening for the public. This route, when fully operational on the entire 33.5 km, will change the dynamics of mass transport. It will also be the first metro corridor to connect congested South Mumbai, will link several disconnected business districts along the island city and suburbs, the two airport terminals and beyond. With Metro-3 partially opening to the public in the first week of October, it will be the fourth metro line to be functional.

What’s in store for Mumbai

The Aqua Line, as it is called, is described as the trunk route for all the metro corridors put together in Mumbai. Cutting through the belly of Mumbai’s deccan basalt rock, it will begin from Aarey depot, criss-crossing beneath forests, highways and bridges to reach the Bandra-Kurla Complex. It covers a total of 12.44 km.

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), which is responsible for making this metro rail a reality, is presently awaiting the final nod from the commissioner of metro rail safety (CMRS). “We are poised to commission Phase 1 on the Aarey-BKC corridor by the first week of October. The CMRS inspection is still underway. We have received approval for the rolling stock while the documentation process is on for the line,” said Ashwini Bhide, managing director, MMRCL.

In all, 10 stations will be open for Phase 1, which will be operational from 6.30 am to 10.30 pm on weekdays and 8.30 am to 10.30 pm on weekends. There will be nine rakes, undertaking 96 trips each day. The MMRCL authorities expect each eight-car train to ferry 2,500 passengers while the headway between two metro trains will be 6.40 minutes.

Forty-eight train captains will manoeuvre the trains, although technically they can operate driverless. The fares for the Aarey-BKC route will be in the range of ₹10 to ₹50. “When the entire corridor is ready till Cuffe Parade, the maximum fare will be ₹70,” said officials. “Initially, passengers will be issued paper tickets with a QR code while NCMC cards will be activated gradually.

Metro 3’s second phase is 21.34 km long, and once it is operational, there will be 31 rakes expected to ferry around 13 lakh passengers daily. The authorities said that 15% of the Line 3 traffic was expected out of the traffic on the suburban railway while 6.5 lakh vehicles could also go off-road. “We expect those commuters taking AC locals from Borivali to BKC and further south to move to Metro 3,” they said.

Phase-2 of this project till Cuffe Parade is expected to be ready by mid-2025, anywhere between March and May. Sources said there were two major works on stations at Worli and Girgaum that were underway. “The work at the two stations is critical,” said an MMRC official. “We aim to finish it by December. Once that happens, we can begin the second phase between March and May next year. We are looking at extending the line till Acharya Atre Marg before that.”

Metro 3 and money

At present, there is meagre mobile phone network inside the Metro 3 corridor. The officials said that a third-party aggregator has been awarded this work. While Airtel’s work is at an advanced stage, Vodafone has begun work and Jio is also in the fray now. There will also be wifi inside the trains.

There is scope to generate revenue from 1.50 lakh square feet of commercial space available in the BKC, Siddhivinayak and Cuffe Parade and airport stations for which tenders have been floated. MMRCL expects to earn ₹200 crore annually.