Govt mulls over starting ropeway link between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai

In a bid to decongest road traffic and bring down the pollution level, the government is planning to explore ropeway link for passenger service that would be started between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The first phase is planed for the Vashi-CBD and Vashi-Ghakopar routes.

Pravin Darade, secretary in the Chief Minister's office handling big projects, informed a few media persons that the paper work for this project was going on for the past six months. A request for the proposal has been already floated and for running the ropeway link between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, global bidders would be invited.

Darade informed that the ropeway link has been proposed for the reason that it would not require land acquisition. It would be possible to run the service by installing poles inside the sea or with very less land required. He said that the ropeway link would also result in reducing the number of vehicles as well as pollution.

The sate government has chalked out ropeway links for three routes out of which two would be aimed at decongesting Mumbai traffic. One would be deployed in Vashi which would be 3.2km long with five stations with a project cost of Rs 300 crore. This route is expected to be completed in 2018.

The other route is between Vashi and Ghatkopar which is 8.4-km long with four stations. This is also expected to be completed by 2018 and it would cost Rs 1,200 crore. The third route proposed is for Matheran hill station and it would be operated from Matheran foothill to the hill station and this project would cost Rs 800 crore. The government also has proposed Vashi-CBD and Thane-Borivli routes for the ropeway link passenger service.