In a relief for passengers travelling to the airport and residents of Mumbai's extended suburbs of Mira- Bhayander, the Maharashtra government has decided to extend the ongoing works on the Metro railway corridors to connect these areas. It will also make Metro routes interoperable, which will enable better connectivity in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
“Today, we have decided to extend the Metro II project from DN Nagar to Dahisar and Metro VII from Andheri East to Dahisar East to the Mumbai airport in the south and Mira Bhayander in the north,” Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the state legislative assembly on Tuesday.
Noting that this would ease the pressures on the Mumbai suburban railway, Fadnavis recalled his experience of traveling in a crowded train from Mira Road station to South Mumbai in the morning rush hour.
“We are ensuring connectivity in such a manner that the Metro III (Colaba- Bandra- SEEPZ) and Metro II-B from DN Nagar to Mandale and the Wadala- Ghatkopar-Thane- Kasarwadwali (Metro IV) and Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan (Metro V) and Swami Samarth Nagar- Vikhroli (Metro VI) will be integrated with this. It will enable people to go from any area (in Mumbai) to another area. We have approved this missing link,” he said.
The state government will also extend the pilot project for mobile-app based electronic filing of complaints, which was launched in Pune district, to all across the state. This can be extended to lodging of FIRs once complaints can electronically sign these documents.
Fadnavis said the Mumbai CCTV surveillance network, wherein 4,717 cameras were set up at 1,510 spots, had helped enforce traffic discipline. After Mumbai and Pune, similar CCTV-based networks will be set up in Nagpur, Nashik, Kalyan- Dombivali, Aurangabad, Amravati.
The state had also increased the conviction rate from 51.49% in 2014-15 to 56.47% in 2015-16 and 58.87% by January 2017 and the rate of detection had also risen.
