The work on the ground might be a picture in contrast for the Dahisar East-Andheri-East metro line 7 and the Dahisar West-DN Nagar metro line 2A, what with the former already having most of its pillars and pier caps in place on the Western Express Highway, and the latter still mostly having metal barricades on Linking Road.
While both lines are being handled by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), line 2A is handled on the ground by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on what a senior MMRDA official called 'an almost independent' status.
However, the DMRC officials working on metro line 2A told DNA that the time lag with metro line 7 is just two months old, and both projects are well placed to be commissioned together at the end of 2019.
"Line 2A was started about one and half months after line 7. Initially, the two lines (2A and 7) were independent. Planning to make them interoperable was done as part of line 2A and that took some time.
The time lag as on date is two months only," said Anuj Dayal. Executive Director, DMRC.
Explaining the interoperable part, a DMRC official said, "The two lines have a connector at Dahisar and now trains from one route can run on the other. As far as work is concerned, it might look different on the ground when compared to line 7 but 2A will soon catch up as far as pillars and pier-caps, etc is concerned. Work on the Dahisar section has picked up and by May work on the entire stretch from Dahisar to DN Nagar will be in full swing," said the official.
Speaking on the reasons on the lag between the two projects, Praveen Darade, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA told DNA that the lack of manpower and machinery were some of them.
