Practice English Speaking&Listening with: 09. Intriguing Bombay - Underground Railway for Bombay
The line number three of Mumbai Metro is currently under construction
and is expected to be completed by 2020
it will connect Colaba to SEEPZ
and covering a distance of over 30 kilometers
it will be the city's first underground metro
except it could have been much earlier
and a lot more earlier than Kolkata or New Delhi
now the idea of underground transportation for Bombay
was thought of as early as 1924
but it never materialised
because the government thought it was impractical
In 1947, NV Modak an engineer
and Albert Mayers an American architect
published an unofficial report
called 'Outline of a Master Plan for Greater Bombay'
now this report not only had recommendations
for development of suburbs, housing, traffic
but it also suggested an underground railway systems
for Bombay as well
only this report was unofficial so no further action was taken
some years later
a study group was appointed
under the chairmanship of one S G Barve
to reexamine the proposal of the Modak and Mayer's report
Barve also endorsed the idea of underground railways
but the plan didn't fructify either
simultaneously the BEST brought up the idea in 1956
when a geological survey was conducted
by a Japanese firm
and a plan was drawn
to build the line between the Dadar and Colaba
but the government wouldn't give the required finances
In 1962 another plan was drafted
by a BEST employee called P G Patankar
Patankar was especially sent to Milan and Berlin
to study the underground railway systems there
and his plan was a detailed one
he envisaged five underground lines
a network of 30 kilometers
and details such as dimensions of railway coaches
signalling systems, ventilation, power supply and tunnelling methods
but when the final plan came up
the project cost had risen to around 5 crore rupees
and due to want of this huge capital investment
this project was also shut down
for several years
the idea of underground railways kept coming up
like in 1974 by the Indian Railways
and in 1997 by TCS
and it's only now that work on this project has finally begun
we can only hope that by the year 2020
this long-drawn vision finally comes true
