'Dealing With People Was Toughest': Ashwini Bhide On Mumbai Metro Line 3
Mumbai Metro Line 3: In an interview with NDTV Profit, MD MMRCL Ashwini Bhide acknowledged that the project’s toughest challenge was 'dealing with people.'
Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.,(MMRC), described the commissioning of the Aqua Line 3 (Colaba–Bandra–SEEPZ) as a 'very satisfying journey.' In an interview with NDTV, Bhide acknowledged that the project’s toughest challenge was 'dealing with people.'
"There were times when we were not sure due to various challenges. Today, people are using it with smiling faces," she said. The MMRCL chief who is also the Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, said that the most strong roadblocks came from executing a deep, high-intensity build in Mumbai, which is very congested.
The 26-station corridor is entirely underground, cutting through thickly populated neighborhoods and hard basalt rock. "We have built five lakh square feet of space underground in Mumbai in hard basalt rock, so it was a construction challenge," she said, adding that works spanned five to seven years in close proximity to residential areas.
"Despite efforts to minimize disruptions, people have suffered along with us, with dust and noise," she said. Managing resettlement, rehabilitation and continuous work 'in the backyards of the people' made community engagement the project’s crucial component.
"We had to shift people, remove them from their houses and rehabilitate them, but the most important thing was working in the backyards of the people because the project is passing through a very congested neighbourhood," explained Bhide.
Mumbai Metro Aqua Line: What's in it for commuters?
On the current footfall in the Aqua Line, Bhide expects that it will rise more. Looking ahead, Bhide said ridership is set to climb as network integration accelerates. "This Aqua Line is yet to get connected to other lines like Line 2, Line 7 and Line 6. When these lines are connected, people from all nooks and corners of the city will come on this line because this is the only corridor which connects South Mumbai," she said.
Bhide also spoke about a commuter's final stretch of a journey that bridges the gap between a public transit hub (like a bus or metro station) and a person's final destination, or from their origin to the hub, called as last-mile connectivity.
On last-mile connectivity, Bhide emphasised that improvements arrive in phases as agencies realign operations. "BEST has to realign its route, auto stands, taxi stands will have to reroute because everyone needs to fall in line and everybody waits in the wings," she said.
Some commuter amenities remain work-in-progress, including in-station mobile connectivity. "We have telephone connectivity within stations which is still a work in progress," she added, advising occasional users that a brief settling period is natural before becoming regular riders.
The entire 33.5-km stretch of Mumbai Metro Line-3, popularly known as the Aqua Line between Cuffe Parade and Aarey JVLR, became operational on October 9, 2025.
