Mumbai Metro to pick up pace at 80kmph
Date
7/5/2015 10:58:43 PM
(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Speed trials on; govt plans to expand network.
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Mumbai: Rapid transit systems the world over are meant to provide — as the name suggests — quick transportation within cities. The metro in India’s busiest city however has been operated at a sedate speed of 50km per hour.
But that is about to change with the commissioner for metro rail safety on Sunday conducting speed trials that could see the metro pick up pace and travel at speeds of up to 80 kmph.
A long way of course from the metro in Shanghai a city that planners and local politicians here look up to and dream that Mumbai would one day resemble. The Maglev or Transrapid of Shanghai Metro can touch a speed of 500 kmph and usually hurtles at over 430kmph.
The first phase of the Mumbai Metro which traverses between Versova and Ghatkopar a distance of 11.4km was shut down for commuters between 8.30am and 4pm on Sunday as the safety officials conducted trials.
But even if Mumbai Metro One the joint venture that operates the first phase gets approval for the higher speed it is unlikely to run the trains at 80kmph. This is because stations pop up on the elevated corridor after every one kilometre on what is one of Mumbai’s busiest east-west corridor.
About seven Indian cities now boast of metro rail systems. Delhi’s is the largest covering nearly 150 stations spread over almost 200km. The Delhi Metro carried more than 800 million passengers in 2013. Mumbai Metro in contrast has just a dozen stations and carried about 100 million passengers last year.
The Airport Express line from New Delhi railway station to Dwarka linking the Indira Gandhi international airport is the fastest metro corridor in India with a maximum speed of 135 kmph.
But the Maharashtra government has ambitions plans to expand Mumbai’s metro network. Plans are to build three more phases of the metro. The second phase will see a 40-km-long elevated corridor linking Dahisar-Bandra-Mankhurd.
The third phase the most ambitious will include an underground phase in the 33.5-km-long project between Colaba and Seepz in Andheri. The fourth phase would link Wadala to Thane.
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