With twelve elevated stations and about 200 services a day, Mumbai Metro is all set to revolutionize the travelling experience of the Mumbaikars. The showbiz capital of India seemed to be in a festive mood as the project which started nearly six years ago in 2008 was finally completed. The Mumbai Metro was launched by the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Prithiviraj Chavan along with Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) chairman Anil Ambani at 10:10 in the morning, on 8th June 2014.
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This service will now reduce the time taken on the 11.4km Versova- Andheri-Ghatgopar stretch from ninety minutes by road to mere twenty-five minutes via metro. However, the disputes over the fare that will be charged are still not over with the company asking for more that what was notified by the Government. The Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd. (MMOPL) wants the minimum fare to be Rs 10 and the maximum to be Rs 40 against the Maharashtra government’s notified fare of Rs 9-13. These issues will be resolved by the court until then the fare will be Rs 10 for all, irrespective of the distance.
The MMOPL is a joint venture company comprising of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure, Veolia Transport and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
The metro will be serving eleven lakh passengers in a day. Each metro coach has a capacity of 375 passengers with the total capacity of around 1500 passengers per service.
Unlike the Delhi Metro, one will not find ATMs, food & beverage joints and the convenience stores here. The reason being, this metro is not a government lead project, whose sole purpose is to generate revenue for the government. The Mumbai metro has promised to soon install Wi-Fi services and will also be having a live CCTV surveillance with 700 cameras monitoring every moment to ensure full security and safety.
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The twelve stations which are covered by the Mumbai Metro start with Versova, DN Nagar, Azad Nagar, Andheri, Western Express Highway(WEH), Chakala, Airport Road, Marol Naka, Sakinaka, Subhash Nagar, Asalpha Road and terminate at Ghatkopar. The one line metro service connects the eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai.
“Being from Kolkata, Metro services are not new to me but the Mumbai Metro is really beautiful, except the rush. The ticket prices as of now are also very economical considering this service has shortened the hour long journey to twenty-five minutes only,” reviewed Megha Sangal, travelling from Versova to Airport Road she was amongst the lucky passengers who took the first ride of the Mumbai Metro.
The IDBI employee adds,” My office is at Airport Road, so the metro is quite a breather for me. But the rush is making me skeptical about choosing the metro over my car.”
OneWorldNews wishes every passenger a happy and safe journey.
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