Ahead of the Maharashtra elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to unveil a slew of projects for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) on Saturday.
According to officials, Modi will preside over the groundbreaking ceremony for three Metro lines –Metro 10 (Gaimukh-Shivaji Nagar), Metro-11 (Wadala-General Post office), Metro-12 (Kalyan-Taloja) and the Metro Bhavan, the operational and control centre for all metro lines that will be constructed in Aarey. He will also unveil a mock train for Metro-2A (Dahisar -DN Nagar) and Metro-7 (Dahisar E-Andheri E) at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC).
RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “A vision document on the Metro network in MMR will also be unveiled on the same day. We will also showcase the Bandongri station.” This metro station is the first one to be ready along the Metro-7 corridor that is expected to be operational in 2020.
The first Metro mock train reached the city on Monday. “The car is housed in a specially constructed exhibition centre at the MMRDA grounds in BKC. The external facade of this centre mimics a typical neo Mumbai Metro station,” Rajeev said.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) expects 505 more Metro cars to be supplied by the Bharat Earth Movers, under the Make in India initiative.
After the bhoomipujan of the Mumbai projects, the PM is expected to fly to Aurangabad in the afternoon and then on to Nagpur. He is also expected to visit Pune. However, the final details of Modi’s visit are yet to be announced.
The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the ₹330 crore broad gauge Metro project of MahaMetro, which will link Nagpur with Wardha, Narkhed, Bhandara and Ramtek. Modi will also release the Brand Vision document of MahaMetro, the nodal agency for several Metro projects in Nagpur, Nashik, etc. The PM will also perform the ground-breaking ceremony of a metro coach manufacturing facility located in Wardha’s Sindi dry port, senior officials said.
At Aurangabad, Modi will dedicate the first phase of ‘state-of-the-art’ Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC), which is developed under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), at Shendra MIDC. State industries minister Subhash Desai confirmed that Modi will inaugurate the first phase of AURIC.
With the Assembly polls a little over a month away, Nationalist Congress Party’s Udayanraje Bhosale is expected to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Modi in Pune, party insiders said. Several NCP leaders are likely to join BJP in the coming days, including Jyoti Kalani and Ganesh Naik. Naik is expected to join the BJP on September 9.
In December 2018, before the Lok Sabha elections, Modi had attended the groundbreaking ceremony of two Metro projects – Metro-5 (Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan) and Metro-9 (Dahisar E-Mira Bhayander line).