Mumbai Metro Line 3: Everything you need to know

[ecis2016.org] The stations, connectivity and upcoming developments – here’s all you need to know about the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro

The Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line, also called Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro, is an ongoing project being implemented by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL). When completed, the 33.5-km-long line will be the first underground metro line in Mumbai, with 27 stations.

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Mumbai Metro Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Line 3 corridor highlights

Mumbai Metro Line 3: Construction timeline

On October 5, 2020, the Mumbai Metro Rail accomplished tunneling from Siddhivinayak till Dadar, covering a distance of 1.10 kms. This part was the most precarious, since a number of residential buildings and commercial shops are located in close proximity to the site. The work is ongoing at Dadar, Siddhivinayak and Sitladevi Metro stations. Around 61% of the total work has been completed at Dadar Metro station. So far, around 87% of the tunneling work and the 60% of the civil work has been completed.

Twin tunnels of 5.2 metres in diameter each, are being dug at a depth of 20-25 metres below ground. Seventeen tunnel boring machines are being used, to construct these tunnels. A section spanning 1.2 kms, from the Bandra-Kurla Complex to Dharavi stations, will pass under the bed of the Mithi river and an additional stabling line is being constructed for this section of Line 3.

The original deadline for Line 3 was 2016 but owing to various legal disputes and environmental issues arising out of its construction, it is now expected to be completed in 2021. Full-fledged construction activities commenced on May 18, 2017, when officials notified the concerned authorities that any further delay would escalate the cost of the project by as much as Rs 4 crores per day. Line 3 will be implemented in phases and the first phase will connect Aarey Milk Colony to Mumbai airport. This section of the corridor is expected to be opened by December 2021 and the remaining section, up to Cuffe Parade, will open by mid 2022.

Mumbai Metro Line 3 connectivity and route

Line 3 will provide commuters connectivity to other metro lines, as well as the suburban railways. Under the original plan, there was no direct connectivity to the airport and commuters would have to exit the metro station, come up to ground level and cross a road on foot, to reach Mumbai airport. However, the MMRCL was directed by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to provide direct access from the metro, to the airport and Mumbai Central railway station.

The following are the stations with interchanges on Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro:

• Churchgate – Western Line
• CSMT Metro – Central Line, Harbour line, Indian Railways
• Grant Road – Western Line
• Mumbai Central Metro – Western Line, Indian Railways
• Mahalaxmi – Western Line, Monorail
• Dadar – Western Line, Central Line, Indian Railways
• BKC – Metro Line 2 (under construction)
• Domestic Airport – Line 7 (under construction)
• Sahar Road – Line 7 (under construction)
• International Airport – Line 7 (under construction)
• Marol Naka – Line 1 (operational)
• SEEPZ – Line 6

On February 14, 2019, the MMRCL announced its fifth tunnelling milestone at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA)-T2 on Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro. The corridor between CSMIA-T2 station and Aarey Colony will provide access to the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro 1 line at Marol Naka and the Swami Samarth Nagar-Jogeshwari-Kanjurmarg-Vikhroli Metro 6 line at Aarey Station. It will also provide some much-needed connectivity between the business hubs of MIDC and SEEPZ, which are not currently connected by Mumbai’s local trains.

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On February 21, 2019, it was announced that a sixth tunnelling project had been completed at the Sahar Road metro station. Starting from September 2018, tunnelling of 692 metres had been completed in this critical section of Line 3, with part of it running under the Tansa Water Pipeline. This new section on Line 3 will help connect Sahar Road to the rest of the city. The MMRCL has completed over 50 kms of the tunnelling work that amounts to 93% of the total project.

Mumbai Metro Line 3 stations

Mumbai Metro Line 3 map

Please note: Metro car shed has now been shifted to Kanjurmarg from Aarey Colony.

Impact of the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line on real estate

There is optimism that the development of the metro rail in Mumbai, will bring about a transformation and boost the real estate sector. “Developers’ interest in projects near the metro routes, has been increasing and there is an upward pressure on prices. The micro-markets that are likely to benefit are CBD (central business district), SBD (secondary business district) north and the western and eastern suburbs. Moreover, residential properties in Thane and Navi Mumbai will receive a boost, due to improved connectivity with the commercial hubs in the western suburbs and SBD north,” explains Surabhi Arora, senior associate director, research, Colliers International.

Ashutosh Limaye, head, research and REIS, JLL India said, “Apart from the areas that are adjacent to the metro line, sometimes, the impact of the metro is also felt in nearby locations. The impact is especially profound, when metro stations are located at commercial centres.” It is, hence, wise to invest in a project, where a metro rail is expected to come up in the vicinity, to get good returns, he added.

Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ metro latest developments

JICA extends loan of Rs 2,480 crores

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in March 2020, signed an agreement with the government of India, to provide an official development assistance (ODA) loan of 39,928 million Japanese Yen (approximately Rs 2,480 crores) for the Mumbai Metro Line 3 Project. The ODA loan agreement was signed between CS Mohapatra, additional secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Katsuo Matsumoto, chief representative, JICA India. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2021.

Overall, JICA has extended concessional ODA loans worth over 1 trillion Japanese Yen (approximately Rs 60,000 crores) for the development of metro systems in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Tunnel under Mithi River completed

In March 2020, the MMRCL achieved a major milestone, when it finished the tunnelling work on one of the two tunnels passing under the Mithi River. The tunnels are at a depth of 12.5 metres below the river.

Leading PSUs and corporates vie for naming rights of stations

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The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is implementing the project, has received 87 expressions of interest (EOIs) to acquire rights to name 18 stations. In all, 28 organisations have expressed their interest in naming rights, with many of them showing interest in multiple stations, MMRC said in a statement, on February 7, 2020. These include large PSUs like LIC, Indian Oil, banking and financial institutions like SBI, Bank of Baroda, UTI, Kotak, IDFC First, HSBC, airlines like Indigo, SpiceJet, and corporates like JSW, GlaxoSmithKline, TimesGroup, Blackstone, Phoenix Mills, Piramal, Oberoi, DB Realty among others. “The BKC station, being the most significant business district in the city, was the most sought-after station with 12 EOIs. Dadar and Airport Terminal 2 stations were joint second, receiving nine EOIs each, followed by Airport Terminal one and CSMT with seven EOIs each,” it said.

Cost escalation in five years

While the Metro project had been facing numerous hurdles, the state government has spent about 70% of the total expenditure on nine projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), for this underground corridor.

According to the economic survey of Maharashtra, the state had spent Rs 22,624.29 crores on nine ongoing Metro projects and nearly Rs 15 crores was spent on the Mumbai Metro Line 3 project. The cost had increased by nearly Rs 10,000 crores from the original estimated amount. Consequently, the budget has been revised from Rs 23,000 crores to Rs 32,000 crores in 2021.

(With inputs from PTI)

Mumbai Metro Line 3 environmental clearance

The construction of Line 3 has been mired by several environmental issues, including the felling of trees and noise pollution complaints. On June 6, 2017, it was reported that over 5,000 trees were proposed to be cut in various areas of south Mumbai. The high court had earlier imposed a stay on the cutting of trees but on May 5, 2017, it vacated its stay and gave a go-ahead to the MMRCL to cut the trees, after observing that a balance needed to be established between development and environment. It is now reported that a total of 5,012 trees will be affected, of which 1,331 will be cut and the remaining 3,681 will re-planted in other parts of the city.

In March 2017, MMRC director Ashwini Bhide had stated that the metro was designed in a way that would minimise the cutting down of trees and that three times more trees would be planted to make up for the loss. She further stated that if all the trees that needed to be cut were saved, it would reduce carbon dioxide in the air by 6,100 kg. However, the metro would help cut CO2 emission by 9.9 million kgs, by significantly reducing the number of vehicles on the road. The MMRC had signed an agreement with the Forest Development Corporation of Mumbai to plant around 9,000 trees.

The work on Line 3 also ran into trouble, when residents in parts of Churchgate, Cuffe Parade and Mahim, complained that noise pollution norms were being flouted during the construction. The Maharashtra government, on June 4, 2018, told the Bombay High Court that it had recorded the decibel levels at three spots where construction work was underway and had sent a report to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), for further action. The Bombay High Court, on July 18, 2018, said it was not inclined to allow the MMRCL to carry out construction for the Metro 3 Line in south Mumbai’s Cuffe Parade area at night, until the MPCB submitted its report on noise pollution.

Mumbai Metro Line 3 Aarey Colony car-shed shifted 

As the Mumbai Metro Line 3 project came under fire from various quarters, for the proposed car-shed at Aarey Colony, a prime green tract in the city, the Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has announced shifting of the depot to Kanjurmarg. The Maharashtra CM, on November 29, 2019, had ordered a stay on the construction work of the metro car-shed and announced that it would set-up a four-member committee, to identify an alternative land for the car-shed.

In December 2020, the Bombay High Court passed an interim order, staying the transfer of land at Kanjurmarg to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

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