THANE: Work on the Kasarwadavli-Gaimukh Metro 4A route will be completed by April 2025 after the initial deadline of March 2024 was overshot, causing a project cost escalation of Rs 63 crore to the initial approved cost of Rs 440 crore, said the MMRDA through a reply to an RTI query.
Mumbai-based activist Anil Galgali, who raised the query, said he witnessed traffic jams at the Ghodbunder Road stretch caused by the ongoing Metro Route 4A works and was curious to know when the project would be completed as work was being stretched for a very long time.
“The project is a crucial alternative for commuters using the state highway. I wanted to know the status of the project execution as I have been witnessing the work to have been going on for a very long time, which was also causing massive inconvenience to commuters. I filed a query under RTI following which the MMRDA informed me that the work orders were issued in September 2019 and the work was to be completed by March 2024. The project was subsequently given an extension till April 2025. The contractor was also slapped a penalty of Rs 22 lakh but the agency hasn’t mentioned the cause of the delay in its reply,” Galgali told TOI.
The MMRDA is the executing agency for the 2.7km long metro route, which is part of the entire 56km Metro corridor linking CSMT to Mira Road in four phases. The first phase is the Wadala-Kasarwadavli (Line 4), followed by the extension to Gaimukh (Line 4A), which will subsequently be linked to Shivaji Chowk in Mira Road (Line 10). The line 11, connecting Wadala with GPO (CSMT), will pave the way for a seamless corridor between South Mumbai and the suburbs with interchanges en route.
