'Mumbai Metro will be the only system that works in monsoon'

'Welcome to the tunnel' greets a sign at the CST stretch of the Metro III project; (below) S K Gupta

In a freewheeling chat during a tour of the Mumbai Metro III alignment, S K Gupta, director of projects, spoke to mid-day about all things Metro: right from its preparedness for Mumbai's flood-prone monsoon to the driverless technology in the eight-car trains.

Gupta also revealed that Mumbai Metro 3 will build an additional, parallel station at the site of the Airport Metro station for the proposed Metro line to Navi Mumbai airport, and hand it over to MMRDA. "The parallel station will be made for connectivity to the Navi Mumbai Metro alignment," he said.
Some more excerpts from the interview:

A signboard offers some sage advice: 'Don't leave for tomorrow the safety you can ensure today'

mid-day: What's your plan to ensure the underground Metro remains functional in flood-prone Mumbai?
Gupta: This is the only system that will keep running in the monsoon. The scope for water to enter the system is through openings at the ground level. The idea is to keep these openings above the water level, so that water does not enter the system. In addition to this, there will be several other measures, including heavy duty pumps, etc to remove the water.

mid-day: What are the practical deadlines, given the enormity of work?
Gupta: About 17 tunnel boring machines will be digging out 52 km of the Metro line. About 800 metres is ready so far and we will soon touch a kilometre. The work will be opened in two phases - SEEPZ to BKC in June 2021 and BKC to Colaba by December 2021.

A double-decker BEST bus passes by a site where work is on for Metro 3. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar

mid-day: What about integration with other modes of transit?
Gupta: We are integrating with suburban railways, other Metro lines and even keeping options of tunnelling open for future requirements in crowded areas. A crucial decision was taken at the Magnetic Maharashtra meet, where we met the bullet train team and decided to keep tunnelling options ready between Metro 3 and HSR Bullet Train corridors for passenger integration. Both stations are about 1.4 km apart in BKC.

mid-day: What about trains and stations on the Metro?
Gupta: Earlier, it had been decided to run smaller trains, but after setting up the functional team and keeping the requirements of the city in mind, we have decided to go in for eight-car trains to begin with. These will be driverless and complete with advanced technology. The platforms will have screens so that there is no scope for anyone to jumping on tracks, etc.

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