Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has issued a government resolution (GR) to make the Dhamankar Naka to Temghar stretch of the Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan, Metro 5, underground. This comes after a demand to this effect was made by local MLA Rais Shaikh to save demolition of houses that came in the way of metro.
Rais Shaikh, of Samajwadi Party, said, “This metro has been delayed for a long time. CM Eknath Shinde had promised in the assembly to make the metro underground. Lot of buildings would have had to be removed if the metro was above the ground. Now, these houses will be saved, and we will get our metro, too.’’
On May 22, Shaikh had submitted a letter to Shinde, who had in turn asked S V Srinivas, the then commissioner of MMRDA, to submit a plan regarding this matter.
The Metro 5 is expected to cost ₹8,417 crore and was sanctioned by the MMRDA on December 21, 2017. It was supposed to be an elevated metro and the route was to connect Kapurbawdi in Thane, travel via Thane Bhiwandi Road, then to Rajiv Gandhi chowk and finally to Rajnoli and Durgadi in Kalyan.
The MMRDA has said that 79% of the civil work is over. They claimed that the stretch from Rajiv Gandhi Chowk to Saibaba Nagar in Temghar has many structures and the rehabilitation work has not started yet.
The GR also said that the MMRDA must submit a fresh plan for the underground stretch of the Metro and get approval from the government.
The Metro 3 connecting Navy Nagar and SEEPZ is completely underground. Line 7 will be extended to the airport and will be underground from the Western Express Highway. Eight stations of the Wadala to GPO Metro will be underground. Besides, the Sahar Airport to Navi Mumbai Airport will also be underground.