MUMBAI could see its average travel speed rise fourfold over the next seven years if all ongoing and proposed infrastructure projects stay on track, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday. Speaking at a student interaction in Worli, he claimed that the city’s current average speed of 20 kmph, which drops to 15 kmph during peak hours, could climb to nearly 80 kmph once a vast network of tunnels and connectors is completed.

Invoking mythology to describe the scale of underground works, Fadnavis said, “We are creating a Patal Lok beneath Mumbai to solve traffic congestion.”