Nearly a year after construction work of the city’s first metro-rail corridor began, the project-affected shops located on the stretch from the Navrang Cinema to SV Road junction await relocation. With the most critical stretch on JP Road, Andheri still waiting for action from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority the construction schedule of the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) could be thrown out of gear.

 SC Gupta, Head of Construction for the Metro project told Newsline , “At this moment there is no delay (in schedule of construction), but if the stretch from Navrang Cinema to SV Road is not handed over in two months’ time, it could lead to delays.”

The Rs 2,356-crore Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor is being constructed by a consortium of Reliance Infra, Voelia Transport and MMRDA. The MMRDA has to rehabilitate 515 Project Affected Persons (PAPs), of these 278 commercial PAPs have been promised rehabilitation at the Andheri Municipal Market.

Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said, “The major issues like Home-Guard land etc have been resolved for the MMOPL. There are minor changes in the alignment on the stretch therefore there is no need to remove the 18 shops to start work on the stretch. The MMOPL can start work tomorrow.”