Decks Cleared For Navi Mumbai Metro: Trial Run Between Central Park And Belapur Stations Successful

The trial run of Navi Mumbai Metro Line-1 from Central Park to Belapur was successfully completed on 30 December.

The corridor which completed the trials under phase 2 is 5.96 km long and runs between Central Park (Station No. 7) to Belapur (Station No. 1).

Prior to this, the trial run from Central Park to Pendhar stations under Phase 1 was completed in January 2022 and the approval of the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (CMRS) has also been obtained for this stretch.

This corridor is of 5.14-km length and has five stations: Central Park, Pethapada, Amandoot, Pethali Taloja and Pendhar.

Now, with the successful completion of the Central Park-Belapur trials, Navi Mumbaikars' dream of a metro ride will soon be fulfilled as the commercial operations on Metro Line-1 is expected to commence soon. However, a deadline has not been assigned.

The NMM-1 (Belapur-Kharghar-Taloja-Pendhar) is a standard gauge corridor which comprises about 11.01 kilometres elevated viaduct with 11 stations and 1 car depot at Taloja and two traction sub-stations at Panchanand and Kharghar.

The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the agency in-charge of Navi Mumbai Metro project, has appointed Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (Maha Metro) for running services on Line 1 of the project for a period of 10 years.

The ground breaking ceremony of Line 1 was performed on 1 May, 2011 and the construction work has been delayed due to a number of factors. As such the Commercial Operations Date (COD) which was initially fixed as June-July 2020 has now shifted to January 2023.

The estimated cost of the Metro Line-1 project is Rs 3,400 crore, out of which Rs 2,600 crores are already infused by CIDCO, Rs 500 crore is from ICICI Bank's line of credit while the remaining amount will be CIDCO's internal accruals.

The project also involves the construction of a 2-km link and one station between Pendhar and MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) and also the construction of a 5-km link to connect the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) from Khandeshwar.