After a 12-year wait, the Navi Mumbai Metro will launch today at 3 p.m. from the Pendhar-Belapur Terminal

Finally, the Navi Mumbai Metro will operate on Friday at 3 p.m., after a 12-year wait.

Almost five months after City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) authorities said they were prepared to launch the train, the service is already operational. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was supposed to launch the major project, but it was postponed twice because the PMO did not approve it.

There was speculation that Prime Minister Modi might visit Navi Mumbai to open the Digh railway station, the second section of the Belapur-Uran railway, and the metro, but neither the chief minister nor the PMO confirmed this.

Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, finally gave CIDCO instructions to begin operations “in the interest of residents” on Thursday.

“The most-awaited Metro will start operating from 17th November, I congratulate Navi Mumbaikar residents for that,” Shinde stated in a press release released by CIDCO on Friday. I had instructed CIDCO employees to prioritize resident convenience above waiting for the ceremonial inauguration. Metro will advance the government’s decision to expand the metro network across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and provide much-needed connectivity inside the city.

At 3 p.m. on both sides, the first service will depart from Pendhar station to Belapur Terminal, and the final service will depart at 11 p.m. Starting on Saturday, the first train will depart from both ends at 6 a.m., while the final metro will depart at 10 p.m. This line will have a train every fifteen minutes.

“The citizens of Navi Mumbai have realized their ambition. Residents will have quick, cozy, and environmentally friendly public transportation alternatives thanks to the metro. This would provide folks from the Kharghar and Taloja nodes the greatest choice for connection. Anil Diggikar, vice-chairman and managing director of CIDCO, said that the metro is a suitable transportation option in the endeavor to turn Navi Mumbai into an international metropolis.

Technical and legal difficulties caused the 11.10km Navi Mumbai metro line, which has 11 stops, to take 12 years to construct, even though CIDCO had originally expected to finish the first line and put it into service within three years after the groundbreaking ceremony. The first phase of the Navi Mumbai metro would run from Pendhar to CBD Belapur.

Belapur Terminal, Sector-7 Belapur, Science Park, Utsav Chowk, Sectors 11–14 Kharghar, Central Park, Pethpada, Sector–34 Kharghar, Pachnand, and Pendhar Terminal are the stations on the line.

Aaditya Thackeray, a former cabinet minister and head of the Shiv Sena UBT, made fun of the Maharashtra administration on the microblogging platform ‘X’ by posting the following: “An additional effect of my earlier and yesterday tweets. The Khoke Sarkar politicians don’t have time for the inauguration, despite the Navi Mumbai Metro being prepared for five months, as I had tweeted and stated in the media. It seems that the unlawful cm has requested that the metro be started tomorrow by the appropriate authority.

“I had made the same demand: if the ministers of this unlawful government don’t have time for people, let them utilize it. For the present mindhe-bjp administration, which has unlawfully taken up positions in our state’s government, the party comes first, then the people. They don’t have time to open the Navi Mumbai Metro for five months, but they have time to campaign for their party in our states.