Mumbai Metro One snippets

Work on the first line of the Mumbai Metro—covering Versova, Andheri and Ghatkopar—will be over by July 2010, much before the 2012 deadline set by the MMRDA. This claim came from Mumbai Metro One director K P Maheshwari, who also said, “There will be 16 trains with four coaches, each carrying 1,500 people right from Day One.’’ Maheshwari also pointed out that the cost of the project would be higher than the estimated Rs 2,356 crore due to a change in design. He said a bridge and some column foundations had to be redesigned because of technical problems. These changes, in turn, pushed up the price tag.Maheshwari said during digging (to lay foundations for the pillars), his team had to deal with utilities such as sewage pipes, power cables and telephone lines. The team had to redesign the column foundations to ensure that the utilities were not disrupted, which led to higher costs. “They also had to redesign a bridge over the railway tracks at Andheri, which further added to the costs,’’ Maheshwari said.