Metro 2A Line to ease your daily commute – Hindustan Times

Mumbai: Daily commuters will soon get a big relief as the Metro 2A line (Dahisar to DN Nagar, Andheri West) is set to be operational after the formal inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 19.

According to officials, PM Modi will take a ride on the metro. His Mumbai visit will begin with this ride and then the PM will address a meeting at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

This newly operational 2A line, which will be colour-coded as yellow will help ease traffic congestion on one of the busiest routes (New Link Road) of Mumbai from Dahisar East to DN Nagar. Once fully functional, this route is expected to see around three lakh daily ridership per day, which is expected to rise to 6.09 lakh passengers a day by 2031.

The Metro Line 2A covers a route length of 18.60 km on a fully elevated metro viaduct with 17 stations and will have an interface with Metro Line 1 at DN Nagar station, Metro Line 6 at Shastri Nagar station near Lokhandwala and Metro- Line 7 at Dahisar station.

The sanctioned cost of the project is ₹6,410 crore, including all taxes and the cost of rehabilitation of affected structures which came in the way of the project. Commenting on the key features and challenges that the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority’s (MMRDA) faced, SVR Srinivas, the metropolitan commissioner said, “For the Line 2A, the work is completed, and we will be commissioning it and making the whole Line 2A operational once the Commission of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) certification is completed this month. Once the certification is in place, commercial operation of the line will begin. Line 2A connects with Line 1 at DN Nagar station. For the first time, north-south and east-west will be connected.”

The CMRS certification includes signalling, supervision of the tracks, signalling, electrical systems and civil works before making it operational for passengers.

Srinivas added that among the challenges faced were the rehabilitation of shops at Adarsh Nagar, shifting of underground utilities, managing traffic on Link Road during construction and the technical challenges during the construction of DN Nagar station at three levels.

The first major challenge was land unavailability, where land had to be acquired at Adarsh Nagar curve and Behrambagh curve just before and after Oshiwara station which was a difficult task and carried out after long consultation with stakeholders resolving all the issues related to relief and rehabilitation by MMRDA.

“The issue of removing 50-60 structures on the Adarsh Nagar curve which was pending for six years was resolved. It was made encroachment free on June 12, 2021, and all substructure and superstructure work was completed within four months,” said Srinivas.

Then came the issue of shifting the utilities below ground like 150 to 1,200 mm dia water pipelines, sewer pipelines up to 1800 mm dia, MGL gas pipelines, power cables and telecom cables. “Most of the foundation works have been done by either supporting or protecting or avoiding these utilities. To achieve this, utility investigation work was carried out up to a depth of about 2.0m, and concerned departments were identified. Very precise coordinates were taken and the same were plotted on a drawing. Thereafter, several technical modifications and solutions such as changing the height, size and shape of pile caps, shifting of foundations, the introduction of special spans, diversion of utilities etc were adopted to facilitate construction of foundation and piers,” he added.

MMRDA also made intense efforts with the joint CP traffic for granting permission for blocking one carriageway along the DN Nagar station which facilitated the erection and completion of three-level DN Nagar station in a record time of 3.5 months.

“Generally, every station takes 12-18 months for completion. Metro Line 2A is crossing the existing and operational Metro Line-1 near DN Nagar station. Launching of 37 M steel girders above the operational line 1 under limited block hours of 3-4 hours duration was another challenging task,” added Srinivas.

It is also pertinent to mention that the substructure of this metro line span has been designed to take derailment impact load of railway trains and thus without having any impact on the superstructure of metro above.

The entire metro alignment in 1,200m length is running adjacent to the Dahisar flyover on the service road and the piers are aligned such that there is a gap of only 400-500mm between the face of the pier and edge of the flyover so that minimum width of the service road is consumed for metro construction. Also, the height of the bottom part of the metro pier cap has been kept at a minimum 5.5m above the flyover as per IRC guidelines to ensure safe vehicular movement on the flyover.

The first phase of the Metro Line 2A project, from Dahanukarwadi to Dahisar East station with an approximate length of 9.8 km has been in operation since April 2022. The second phase from Dahanukarwadi (Kamran Nagar) to DN Nagar in Andheri West will be operational this month.