How Should Mumbai’s Metro Rail Network Look? Here’s A Plan For The Future.

I have used Mumbai’s public transport extensively and I’m proud of it. But like all Mumbaikars know, the city is growing by leaps and bounds and so its infrastructure desperately needs a massive overhaul. The Maharashtra government and Indian Railways have many plans, such as the metro rail and elevated corridors, to alleviate Mumbai’s infrastructure constraints. I have read about them, especially most of what is available in the public domain. On the basis of that, I have come up with a plan for Mumbai’s future metro network.

Map of the proposed metro network

1. Churchgate–Virar Underground Metro

There are plans to have an elevated railway corridor from Churchgate to Virar over the Western Railway (WR) lines.

Challenges

- WR is already facing problems in acquiring land for laying the sixth line between Mumbai Central and Borivali. Though the elevated stretch will need much lesser land, it will still require some over and above the current land requirement. Acquiring land for the elevated corridor will be a costly and time-consuming affair.

- Building over the very busy WR lines may lead to significant delays and high costs of construction.

- WR lines bisect the island city and suburbs; so once the elevated corridor comes up, no rail over bridge can be built across it in the future, and any plans to have more east-west connectivity will have to be scrapped.

Solution

I propose that the Churchgate-Virar section have underground metro.

• The construction will be easier since the rail lines are right above, and there are no building foundations to tackle.
• We can even have a slow and fast corridor, just like the WR lines above. Suburban lines are saturated, and an extra underground corridor will certainly help.
• There will be no dearth of passengers.
• Additionally, if majority suburban passengers shift to underground metro, a couple of lines can be freed for outstation trains.

2. CST–Kalyan Underground Metro

Though there are no plans for this stretch currently, similar problems exist, and I propose the same solution for the Central Railway (CR) suburban section. Suburban traffic in CR is bursting at the seams and will only appreciate with any additional capacity.

3. Ahmedabad–CSIA–NMIA Bullet Train

A bullet train from Ahmedabad to Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) has been planned. I propose that the underground bullet train terminus be shifted from BKC to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).

Challenges

1. It’s evident that the Maharashtra government is reluctant to part with land at BKC for the bullet train terminus. The underground terminus at BKC will hamper the construction of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).
2. Even if it comes up at BKC, it will be very small to make room for the IFSC above.
3. There are not enough captive passengers as opposed to the suggested alternative.

Solution

Shifting the underground bullet train terminus to CSIA is a logical step.

• In the future, this line could be extended to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NIMA) and beyond to Pune and so on. It will bring in captive passengers for the bullet train. In the future, passengers alighting at CSIA can take the bullet train to Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru or Nagpur (if these lines are expanded).
• Connecting CSIA and NMIA with the bullet train will fulfil Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ vision of having high-speed connectivity between Mumbai’s twin airports.
• CSIA and BKC will anyway be connected by the underground Metro 3.
• With the underground bullet train terminus, CSIA will become a multi-modal transit hub and an important nerve centre in the futuristic bullet train network, potentially connecting western, southern and central India.

4. Borivali–Thane–Panvel and Bhiwandi Metro

There are no plans for this stretch yet.

Challenges

1. Travelling from Borivali to Thane or Bhiwandi is a nightmare. People are forced to take the long circuitous route around Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). For those without a personal car, this journey is even more painful and time-consuming.
2. Connectivity between Thane and Navi Mumbai is problematic too, and the traffic in this stretch is very heavy every day.
3. There are a lot of offices in Navi Mumbai region, but office-goers from western suburbs and Thane region have to spend long hours daily to travel to these offices. Additionally, WR and CR lines get crowded because of this heavy passenger traffic since there is no direct connection.

Solution

I propose that an elevated metro be constructed from Borivali West Link Road to Thane. This alignment, once it crosses the Western Express Highway, should go underground under SGNP. Once it emerges in Thane, the line can split into two. One arm can go towards Bhiwandi while the other can go towards NMIA and Panvel, passing through Navi Mumbai.

• Passengers from the western suburbs can then have direct metro rail connectivity to Thane, Bhiwandi, Panvel and, most importantly, NMIA. This way, NMIA won’t have a dearth of passengers, and airlines will readily shift from CSIA to NMIA.
• This line can be a mainline for other metro lines which merge into it on the Navi Mumbai side. For example, Andheri Metro can be extended across the creek to merge into this line at Turbhe. Even the planned harbour line elevated corridor can merge into this line at Vashi.
• This single metro line will potentially be an alternate mainline for Navi Mumbai, apart from the present harbour line.
• This line can potentially be an inner peripheral ring line as opposed to the outer peripheral multi-modal ring from Virar to Alibaug.

5. Goregaon–Mulund–Airoli Metro

Though there are no plans for this metro line yet, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) underneath SGNP is in the planning stages.

Challenges

1. Goregaon, Mulund and Airoli are extremely important nodes in the western suburbs, central suburbs and Navi Mumbai respectively. Currently, the Jogeshwari–Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) is the link which connects them, but the traffic is so high that JVLR is already saturated.
2. Since there is no train connectivity, and with JVLR present, the amount of personal car ownership has gone up undesirably.
3. Goregaon to Mulund is still manageable, but to go ahead to Airoli is again a tough task due to the saturated Mulund-Airoli link across the creek.

Solution

I propose that an elevated metro can be constructed from Goregaon West, near Inorbit, to Mulund and then on to Airoli. Between the Western Express Highway and Mulund, the metro line can be underground, just like the currently planned GMLR.

• This line can merge into the previously suggested Borivali–Thane–Panvel line in Airoli. Passengers from Malad, Goregaon and Mulund will then have direct connectivity to Airoli, Panvel and NMIA.
• This line will keep the GMLR de-congested, unlike the JVLR.
• Since the GMLR will be an underground link, only private cars or air conditioned buses will be able to travel across it. This metro line will be a great alternative for other passengers and even for car users.

6. JVLR–Kanjurmarg–Rabale Metro

A line over JVLR up to Kanjurmarg has been planned. I propose that this line be extended up till Rabale and merged with the suggested Borivali–Thane–Panvel line.

• It has similar issues as the Goregaon–Mulund–Airoli stretch.
• Additionally, JVLR (especially Powai) has many offices. If this line comes up, then many air passengers will use it to travel between NMIA and JVLR.

7. Mumbai Metro Line 1–Turbhe

There are no plans for this alignment. Personally, I feel that the successful Mumbai Metro Line 1 will benefit even more if it has an arm, starting right before Ghatkopar and crossing the creek to reach Navi Mumbai at Turbhe. Also, this line can be merged with the suggested Borivali–Thane–Panvel line so that passengers from Andheri can travel directly to Navi Mumbai, NMIA and Panvel.

8. Merge Mumbai Metro Line 2 (Dahisar–Mankhurd) and CST–Panvel Corridor from BKC and then merge this line to Borivali–Thane–Panvel line

Currently, Mumbai Metro Line 2 has been planned as Dahisar–Bandra–Mankhurd. Of this, Dahisar–Andheri is under execution right now.

Challenges

1. Redundancy of corridors
2. Merger of Dahisar–Mankhurd Metro with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)–Panvel line, though the logical next step has not been planned
3. Lack of direct connectivity between the western suburbs and Panvel. Even though Andheri–Wadala Harbour link exists, very few trains run on this saturated corridor. Also, it is a long circuitous route and highly time-consuming.

Solution

• I think the CST–Panvel elevated corridor beyond Kurla and Metro Line 2 beyond Kurla will run on almost similar alignment. Instead, I propose that both of these be merged right before the Kurla junction.
• This elevated metro corridor can then go right up to Vashi and merge with the suggested Borivali–Thane–Panvel line. Even if the Borivali–Thane–Panvel line isn’t taken up, the merged line can go beyond Vashi and use the currently suggested alignment along Palm Beach Road. It does not help much to have two different corridors on the same alignment between Kurla and Vashi.
• With this merger, passengers from the western suburbs as far as Dahisar and passengers from south Mumbai, as far as CST, will both have direct access to Vashi, NMIA and Panvel. In this regard, I suggest that there be a re-look at the CST–Panvel elevated rail corridor, and a common metro corridor could be considered instead to see whether it will be a better, more practical option.
• CR authorities have already expressed difficulties concerning construction over the busy CR and Harbour lines for the CST–Panvel elevated corridor. This merits a re-look and consideration of a metro corridor instead, which will have lesser land and curvature requirements. As mentioned earlier, building any elevated corridor over the present suburban lines could be very expensive, in terms of both time and money.

These are some of my suggestions pertaining to metro line planning for Mumbai. This is a crucial piece of city infrastructure and I can only hope that authorities come up with such integrated planning. I hope that the metro, suburban rail and road authorities plan these corridors together and come up with a comprehensive and structured infrastructure plan.

This is an opportunity to catapult Mumbai’s infrastructure to the twenty-first century.

This piece was first published on the writer’s blog and has been republished here with permission.