By March, the first route of the Mumbai metro rail would be open for public use. Currently the whole route is undergoing safety certification from various agencies, said Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday evening.

He was addressing a large public meeting after inaugurating the 8.26 km route of the Mumbai monorail project.

The monorail route would be thrown open for public use from Sunday morning. It will connect Wadala in Central Mumbai with Chembur in suburban Mumbai. The services will run from 7 am to 3 pm, which would be increased gradually. One rake will carry about 560 passengers.

On the other hand, the 11.4 km elevated track of metrorail will connect the western suburb of Versova to the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar through Andheri. There will be 12 stations on the route and the distance, which takes nearly one and a half hour by road, will be covered in just 21 minutes.

Chavan said that the third route of metrorail, which is still in the planning phase, will cover a distance of 34 km. The route would be completely underground and when the construction commences it would be the largest infrastructure project in the country. The Japanese Government under an agreement with the Indian Government has given a soft loan of Rs 14,000 crore for the project, he said.

He added that large transportation projects such as metro and monorail are essential for Mumbai’s development. In fact the new monorail system will soon become an icon for Mumbai city.

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