The Metro Line Plan Connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport T2 with Navi Mumbai Airport Has Been Reinstated

The Metro Line Plan - T2 with Navi Mumbai Airport 

With progress being made on the Navi Mumbai International Airport, the two development agencies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Area have revived the Airport Express Line.

Navi Mumbai's construction will be carried out by City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), whereas Mumbai's will be handled by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

There is not yet an MRTS connecting the two airports in question. Since 2014, MMRDA's Metro Master Plan has included the Metro 8 route, which will link the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport with the planned new Navi Mumbai Airport.

The 35-kilometer line is projected to cost Rs 15,000 crore and carry 9 million people per day.

The planned route has the railway spending some time below ground and some time above it. Between Andheri and Ghatkopar's Eastern Express Highway, where the line is anticipated to switch to an elevated track along Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road all the way to Mankhurd.

Fewer services will be provided each hour than usual. Nonetheless, professionals insist that, due to aircraft schedules, a modest frequency of services is enough.

Metro 8 will run from Mankhurd to Sagar-Sangam on the Navi Mumbai Metro 1 line and from Belapur to the Navi Mumbai Airport; MMRDA requested that Cidco provide a comprehensive project study for this route.

Originally, MMRDA intended to build just as far as Mankhurd before connecting it to the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation's projected CSMT-Panvel high-speed link (MRVC). An 8.5-kilometer loop would branch out from Seawoods in the direction of the planned Navi Mumbai airport. Nevertheless, the CSMT-Panvel high-speed route was removed from the evaluation of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project 3A by the railway ministry. It meant it was doomed from the start.

As one high-ranking official put it,