Navi Mumbai Metro update

A meeting of the board of directors of Cidco will be held next week when the officials will choose the firms that will construct the elevated viaducts for Navi Mumbai’s first Metro rail corridor. Bids have been submitted by 15 firms for the construction of over 11.1 km from Belapur to Pendhar in Taloje. The first phase of construction is scheduled to be completed in three years and by then, the second international airport near Panvel is also expected to get operational. The elevated viaduct of the first corridor will be constructed in two parts. The first part would be 4.34-km long and the second one 4.91 km and that would include the lengths of stations as well, a senior official said. The cost of raising the pillars is pegged at Rs 167 crore for the first section and Rs 184 crore for the second one. The estimated cost for this route is Rs 2,000 crore and Cidco, which has undertaken the project, plans to raise the funds by selling its land that falls along the Metro route, much of it in Kharghar. A senior officer from Cidco informed that work on the construction of the stations would be tendered soon. Each station measures around 140 metre and in the revised plan, the metro would be connected with the Belapur suburban railway station while Kharghar station via the skywalk to the upcoming metro and similarly at Panchanand in Taloje where the metro would be connected to Diva Panvel railway track for the convenience of commuters. Each station is expected to cost between Rs 20 to Rs 25 crore.