South Mumbai’s Metro Line 3 will extend to Worli Naka in March, providing an underground alternative to congested roads and local trains.

MUMBAI: South Mumbai will finally be on the Metro map in March, with fares starting at Rs 10 and going up to Rs 60.
It will be an underground escape route from noisy, congested roads and densely packed local trains. What the island city will get is an extension of Line 3, which opened last Oct between Aarey and BKC. It will now stretch to Worli Naka (Acharya Atre Chowk station), enabling passengers to travel in AC comfort from Aarey to Worli along a 22km underground route.

For Rs 60, commuters will be able to bypass the traffic-clogged stretches of Lady Jamshedji Road and Dr Annie Besant Road and cruise through neighbourhoods like Dharavi, Dadar, Siddhivinayak and Worli. “I’m always stuck in traffic on Dr Annie Besant Road, sweating it out in a cab. Soon, for just Rs 60, I would be able to zip from Worli to Seepz. I couldn’t have imagined that this would be true,” said Priya Rane, a marketing professional who works in Worli and lives in a housing complex at JVLR.
An official from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) said the corridor will serve as a much-needed alternative to road transport.

There will be interconnectivity issues (like Dadar Metro station being a kilometre away from Dadar railway station), but the new line will still offer direct connectivity to commercial hubs like BKC and Worli, hitherto accessible only through bottlenecked roads.
“What’s important is that I won’t have to travel by expensive cabs or worry about taking the grimy local trains. The Metro will be available from my doorstep and take me to my destinations in minutes,” said Akshat Chheda, a resident of Dadar.

The first phase of Metro 3 (Aarey to BKC), began services on Oct 5 last year. Since its launch, the corridor has attracted around 25,000 passengers daily, which is below ridership projections, but still shows that many now prefer this faster alternative to the city’s choked roads. With Phase II reaching the densely populated island city, MMRC hopes for a surge in ridership.
The convenience of a 22km underground stretch through some of the city’s busiest areas is expected to lure many away from roads.
Originally, Metro 3 was envisioned in two distinct phases: Aarey to BKC and BKC to Cuffe Parade. But as construction progressed, plans evolved. Crossovers were introduced at Acharya Atre Chowk in Worli and CSMT to facilitate smoother train reversals, making the network more flexible and efficient.
But arriving at this point wasn’t without challenges. One of the most complex engineering feats was tunnelling beneath Mithi River.
“Two types of works have been done below Mithi river, one is of twin tunnels by TBM connecting BKC to Dharavi, and the other of a siding by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method. Both have been done in a weaker geology, with a water body above. These issues were appropriately dealt with by adopting certain technical protocols,” said SK Gupta, director (projects), MMRC.
The river’s main channel, spanning 270 metres with constant water flow, was an obstacle. Of the 1.8km stretch between BKC and Dharavi, nearly 1.2 km runs directly under the riverbed. Special earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines (EPB TBMs) capable of handling the soft, water-logged ground were deployed.

Hydrophilic gaskets were used to seal the tunnels: these expand upon contact with water to ensure an airtight passage. Mumbai isn’t the first Indian city where a Metro tunnel was bored beneath a water body—Kolkata’s Metro traverses 30 metres below the Hooghly, and Chennai’s tunnels snake under the Cooum. But Mumbai is unique in that alongside the water body lies a dense urban sprawl.

There were other challenges too. “Acharya Atre Chowk station is situated at a busy traffic intersection. This station has massive civic utilities, which were supported by steel truss during its con struction,” said Gupta. “Traffic management and sequential restoration of the road, construction of a crossover by NATM and tunnelling proved to be a series of complex tasks.”