Mumbai's 100-year-old metro dream: A 1924 vision that came true a century Later

A 1924 report stumbled upon by a civic official reveals that the dream of an underground railway network in Mumbai predates Independence and the means to realise it was proposed by none other than Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya whose vision involved setting up a 12km circular electric line connecting the island cityrsquos busiest railway stations and commercial hubs Regarded as one of the foremost civil engineers Sir Visvesvarayarsquos birthday September 15 is celebrated as Engineerrsquos Day in India Sri Lanka and TanzaniaAn extract mentioning the circular line proposed in 1924A few years after India awoke to freedom PG Patankar the general manager of the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport BEST made a plan for a 319km underground Metro with the help of the Japanese This transit system included a network of five interconnected underground lines with a circular route through South Mumbairsquos Fort area However the plans of both Sir Visvesvaraya and Patankar never saw the light of day mdash largely due to financial constraints lack of institutional support and political hesitationCenturyold planSanjay Adhav an executive engineer attached to the heritage conservation department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC said he came across this startling find buried in the 1924 report titled lsquoMunicipal Retrenchment and Reformrsquo prepared by Sir VisvesvarayaCommuters enjoy a ride on the recently opened Mumbai Metro Aqua Line 3 PicSatej ShindeThe cost of the proposed underground line was staggering for its time mdash R33 lakh per mile mdash and the project was shelved as ldquounlikely to materialise for some years to comerdquo Yet the foresight is remarkable The report compares Bombayrsquos congested rail and road corridors to London New York Berlin and Tokyo noting how those cities had already taken their tracks underground or elevated to beat traffic snarlsldquoI found this treasure in 2023 when I was researching old files for a civic project at the Worli Engineering Hub I dug out data to find out if he was involved in any work with the civic body It all revealed that he had worked as a retrenchment committee member and was asked to prepare proposals for the reduction of expenditure and for reforms needed to secure greater efficiency and economy in the municipal administration after World War I when he had made the proposal And as the new Aqua Line opens it is exactly a century now What coincidencerdquo an excited Adhav saidSir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya civil engineering visionaryThe vision was clear a rapid transit system beneath the crowded bazaar streets linking Churchgate Victoria Terminus now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus the docks and Fortrsquos business houses The problem was money and perhaps a lack of political will The Great Depression and then the war years buried the idea deeper than any tunnel The centuryold report also expressed worries about overcrowding housing and suburban growth stressing that only cheap and rapid transit could save Bombay from choking It was a vision modelled on Londonrsquos Tubes and Berlinrsquos UBahnA drawing of the Mumbai Metro system prepared and pushed by BEST General Manager PG Patankar in the late 1950s PicBest MuseumBut with municipal debts mounting and Rs 33 lakh per mile deemed astronomical the scheme was quietly set aside The idea was shelved Bombay carried on with trams then doubledecker buses then suburban trains groaning under impossible loads Wars came and went plans were drawn and abandoned and the city grew northward without ever digging beneath its crowded streets The idea however did not die It slept in archivesTees saal baadIn 1957 a detailed proposal for a Mumbai Metro system was prepared and pushed by Patankar This one suggested a 22km underground corridor linking Colaba Fort Marine Lines and the northern stretches Engineers studied traffic growth housing pressure and suburban congestion concluding that without an underground railway Bombayrsquos future would choke and made a ldquoMetro blueprintrdquoPatankarrsquos plan was bold he proposed a network of five interconnected underground Metro lines for the island city totalling about 319 km His design included a circular route through South Bombayrsquos Fort area starting and ending at Victoria Terminus Radial lines connecting VT to Byculla and from Byculla to Sion East and from Byculla to Mahim West With provisions to extend the network outward later as suburban expansion proceededThe 1924 report mentioning an underground railway line in the city which was discovered in 2023In his preface Patankar argued that by 1963 Bombay then limited to the island and immediate suburbs had a population of about 42 million and was already experiencing serious vehicle congestion He noted that vehicle numbers had soared from approximately 13400 in 1955 to over 93400 by 1962 He insisted that rapid underground transit was ldquounavoidablerdquo if the city were to cope He also addressed technical challenges tunnel ventilation structural underpinning of buildings signalling the dimensions of rolling stock and how to maintain surface stability in areas above the tunnelsAshwini Bhide managing director MMRCLPatankar even framed an additional rationale in times of war or air raids an underground network would afford better protection to citizens than surface transport For cost comparisons he estimated the project in the 1960s would cost about Rs 1750 lakh per km mdash much lower than what had been assumed in overseas projects then Yet despite the technical maturity and the seriousness of his proposal Patankarrsquos scheme was not adopted But India of the 195060s was resource scarce and still battling basic developmental challenges and the project was deemed too expensive Patankar continued his career with the BEST and beyondThe futuristldquoPatankar was not merely an administrator he was a futurist who read Bombayrsquos pulse decades ahead of his peers At a time when the cityrsquos traffic was only beginning to get worse he imagined a modern underground Metro linking Fort Byculla Sion and Mahim mdash a network bold enough to rival the worldrsquos great transit systems He visited Japan and studied its network His 1957 blueprint was not just about trains it was about preserving Bombayrsquos vitality against congestion and chaos A visionary model of his plan is at the BEST Anik Museumrdquo said Yatin Pimpale curator of the BEST MuseumModern realityToday with the Aqua Line 3 mdash a fully underground 335km corridor mdash the city finally has something resembling the ideas those earlier visionaries had only sketched ldquoBeing part of the realisation of the dream of the underground railway in Mumbai envisaged by none other than Sir Visvesvaraya in 1924 and then by Dr PG Patankar in 1958 is a great privilege and fortune for me and my team in the MMRCL Mumbai Metro Rail CorporationWe lived this dream for the past 10 years and did not leave a single stone unturned to make it a reality for Mumbaikars I cherish each and every moment of this journey full of hope and aspirations hard work and passion There were high points and low points but ultimately with the support of Mumbai citizens we could make it possiblerdquo Ashwini Bhide the managing director of MMRCL who spearheaded the complex underground Metro project told midday