MMRDA to update its 8-yr-old Metro master plan for the city.

As ground realities have changed in the decade after the first Comprehensive Transportation Study (CTS) was conducted, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to update its master plan for the Metro rail network in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region through Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. Most plans that the CTS had proposed are still on paper, hence the MMRDA, in December 2014, decided to update the CTS too.

According to MMRDA officials, the metro master plan needs to be updated as many rapid changes have taken place in the region in the last decade. 'We will get our master plan updated from DMRC separately once they complete this task of updating the current Detailed Project Reports (DPRs). Then they will have a relook at the corridors proposed in the CTS. This may lead to some fresh plans,' said UPS Madan, Metropolitan Commissioner.

He added that DMRC will take around three to four months to complete work on the current DPRs and thereafter, they will take up the task of updating the CTS.

DMRC is currently carrying out feasibility study and revision on current 118-km metro lines planned for the city. Officials said that the CTS - conducted between 2005 and 2007 - has to be updated as more recent data is available.

According to MMRDA officials, the scope of work for DMRC would be to look at the current demands and
changing scenario of MMR.

'Barring these nine metro corridors, DMRC will look into whether any other line, which was proposed in the CTS, needs to be modified, totally changed, any new line needs to be added or deleted,' Madan said.

These modifications will be done keeping in mind the demand for at least the next 25 years, he added.

THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL