Dream ride in Mumbai Metro by June 2013 to come true
Is it possible for the residents of Mumbai to take their dream ride in a Metro by June 2013? The construction of the Metro bridge over Western Railway tracks near Andheri has been completed.
Huge cranes have been installed in the last panels, carved in irons which resembles the Howrah bridge structure, atop the pillars on Sunday. Completing the work within the given time period was a challenge for the officials. The 1,284 meter steel bridge was completed in 288 days and this is the first such steel-and-concrete bridge over the busy suburban railway.
Now the task to set tracks and signalling system on the viaduct along with the bridge will probably obtain momentum, other than installation of commuter facilities at the upcoming stations. The Mumbai civic body is planning to conduct trail run of Mumbai’s first ever Metro train, and start operations between Versova and Airport Road stations, of the 12-km Metro route and the route will have 12 stations.
Mumbai metro construction work started early this year and also faced various challenges – mainly the construction of a pillar in the middle of the tracks without hampering the train traffic even for a day. The civic body has taken care of the traffic while building the two structures. According to sources, the bridge went through a series of delicate battle issues of a foot over-bridge, a mosque and Indian Railway’s stringent safety norms with very limited train-blocks available.
The steel girder had to be pre-fabricated at a workshop in Kolkata due to restriction in working hours and non-availability of space which took additional six-seven days to transport it to Mumbai on a piecemeal basis.
| Route length: 11.4 kmNumber of stations: 12 (Versova, D N Nagar, Azad Nagar, Andheri, Western Express Highway, Chakala, Airport Road, Marol, Sakinaka, Subhash Nagar, Jagruti Nagar, Ghatkopar)Max per hr peak direction traffic: 45,000Passenger carrying capacity: 10 lakh/dayFleet Size: 16 four-car trains
Headway: 3 minutes (minimum)
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Status report of the construction:
95% of the civil work has been completed.
7 of 16 ordered trains have been received; rest is expected by beginning of 2013.
System works viz track works, power supply, signalling, telecommunications, etc are being carried out simultaneously.
Only smaller spans of viaduct towards Sarvoday and Asalpha are to be connected
Cable-stay bridge on WEH, first ever and highest cable-stay bridge for a Metro in Asia, is completed
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