Ground work to construct Andheri East – Dahisar East Metro-7 will commence just before monsoons, as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will be issue tenders for the civil works on Monday.

"In Monday`s Executive Committee meeting of the development authority, we will be awarding the contractors – all the three packages – to construct Metro line on Western Express Highway," said UPS Madan, Metropolitan commissioner of MMRDA.

As per the plans with the authorities, the preparatory work to commence ground work will take off before rains hit Mumbai. These initial works will include utility mapping, getting traffic clearances, making alternate traffic arrangements and adding lanes on the Western Express Highway, etc. along the 16.5-km long Metro route.

Once the rains lash Mumbai, the planning work will be continued to move equipments on the ground the moment monsoon exits. "Main construction work will begin only after monsoon," confirmed Madan, and is scheduled to be ready in 30 months duration from the issuance of work orders.

In all, three packages were floated in December 2015 for civil construction, in response to which it received four bids for the first and second packages each, while the third package had five bids. The quotations by the private infrastructure companies who have been found as `lowest bidders` have been found to be 2 to 5 per cent lower than the reserve price set by the MMRDA.

This Metro corridor has an estimated completion cost of Rs 6,208 crore and will be constructed in between the north-bound highway and service road. On completion, that is by March 2019, it will be connected with the existing Western Express Highway Metro station for commuter integration.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) too is likely to close bidding for Dahisar East – D N Nagar Metro line later this month. With this construction of both the Metro routes will commence later this year. Metro2A will be erected on Link Road between Dahisar and Andheri with 17 stations and a completion cost pegged at Rs 6,410 crore.