By Ananya Sharma 
Mumbai, September 24: It was another messy day for the metro in Mumbai. Commuters ran into confusion, stations were locked without warning, and services were slowed down on two of the busiest new corridors. At the same time, engineers were celebrating the arrival of massive tunnelling machines at the port, while news broke that the long-awaited underground line in South Mumbai had once again been pushed back. This time, the reason is the delay at the Navi Mumbai airport.
Slowed Trains On Lines 2A And 7
The first shock came during the morning rush. Trains on Metro Lines 2A and 7 were suddenly running slower and less frequently. Officials later admitted they had shifted to single-track operations between Ovaripada and Aarey, which meant trains could only move in one direction at a time.
A temporary shuttle was thrown in between Gundavali and Aarey, while the rest of the route from Andheri West to Dahisar East continued as usual. That “as usual” still meant long queues, longer waits, and plenty of passengers shaking their heads.
No one has said when full services will return, and commuters are left guessing. That silence is often harder to swallow than the delay itself.
Dindoshi Station Shuts Its Gates
As if that was not enough, the gates of Dindoshi station were down. No warning, no announcement, no explanation. People turned up only to find the shutters locked.
Those who asked security staff got little more than blank looks. Some walked out to hunt for buses, others fought for cabs, and plenty just stood around cursing the system. Mid-day reported that even the staff could not explain why the station had been closed.
This kind of sudden closure has been happening too often on the newer lines. Riders are glad to have AC trains, but the unpredictability makes it hard to depend on them.
Tunnelling Machines Roll Into Port
While passengers were stranded, engineers were smiling at Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The first set of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) finally arrived, three of them in all.
They will be used to dig out 21 kilometres of pending tunnels for future metro lines. These machines, each weighing hundreds of tonnes, are critical to keeping the long-delayed underground sections alive. Their arrival does not mean tunnelling starts tomorrow. Sites still need to be prepped, clearances obtained, and a small mountain of paperwork cleared. But it is progress, and in Mumbai’s infrastructure story, progress usually comes in inches.
Metro 3 Opening Stuck Behind Airport
Meanwhile, the city’s most anticipated line, the Colaba–Bandra–SEEPZ underground corridor or Metro Line 3, has slipped further away. The government had planned to open the Worli to Cuffe Parade section alongside the grand launch of the Navi Mumbai International Airport on September 30.
That airport site is now waterlogged thanks to heavy rains. Its inauguration has been pushed back, and the metro’s ribbon-cutting has been dragged with it.
For people in South Mumbai, who have been watching dates move for years, this is another blow. The line is supposed to take pressure off the crammed suburban rail and jammed roads, but each postponement makes it feel more like a mirage.
Hope, Frustration, And A City In Between
The Mumbai Metro project is massive on paper, with a 300-km network meant to knit together suburbs and the city. Some of it is already working, easing traffic on corridors like the Western Express Highway. But what commuters see on the ground is uneven with random closures, patchy announcements, and opening dates that never stick.
On Tuesday, that contradiction was laid bare. Shutters came down on one station, trains slowed to a crawl on another line, and yet giant boring machines rolled into port with the promise of tomorrow.
It is the same story Mumbaikars know well: the city is always moving, but never quite on time.
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- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
Kavita Iyer