ET Trailblazers: Meet Ashwini Bhide, who is redefining the future of transportation with the first fully underground Mumbai Metro Line 3

Set to breathe new life into a city grasping for breath and space is Aqua Line or Mumbai Metro Line 3, a fully-underground and one-of-its-kind metro corridor of Mumbai that spans 33.5 kilometres and will connect the southernmost part of Mumbai with the northern parts of the city. And the woman leader who is at the helm of that initiative is Ashwini Bhide, the Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) and the Additional Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
At ET Trailblazers, a conversation series with women leading the change in various fields, Ashwini Bhide shared her vision for shaping the future of seamless connectivity, smart and safe mobility, and women-friendly transportation with the Mumbai Metro Line 3, which she believes has the capacity to be a second lifeline of Mumbai once it is rolled out.
“I think it will have a large impact by providing the most coveted safer, speedier, and more comfortable transport for Mumbai city. It will provide a transport mode empowered with modern features, which the citizens of Mumbai deserve, because there is too much overcrowding on the suburban train network affecting their daily commute to a substantial extent,” Bhide said.

The new line is set to decongest the roads by taking out almost 6.5 lakh vehicle trips per day and also reduce fuel consumption by 3.5 lakh litres per day. “Once it fully gets commissioned, Line 3 will carry almost 17 lakh passengers per day, and that too in an underground mode,” said Bhide, whose story is the quintessential dream story of an Indian woman, of a small-town girl who rose to the ranks of an IAS officer, shattering one glass ceiling after another.

Bhide, who is known to have displayed an aptitude for asking questions and learning along the job, hails from Sangli district of Maharashtra. The 1995 IAS topper broke into the male-dominated bastion, and started her two-decade long career as the assistant collector of Kolhapur district following which, she was posted as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Sindhudurg district, before being transferred to Nagpur district. Subsequently, she was appointed as deputy secretary to the Governor of Maharashtra, following which she was appointed as Additional Metropolitan Commissioner at the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

Bhide’s work in urban infrastructure spans over 14 years, in addition to her experience in rural infrastructure development and contributions to women empowerment, education, primary health as well as animal health.

Safe and smart mobility
Indeed, at the core of Bhide’s vision to define the future of safe and smart mobility is the direct correlation between mobility and the country’s female labour force participation rate.

To be sure, one of the key reasons contributing to low female labour force participation is mobility or the lack of a safe, convenient and comfortable transport system, especially a challenging last-mile connectivity. Bhide stressed that women are also more impacted by long spates of road travel time, owing to congestion and lack of adequate sanitation and toilet facilities.

“Although the Mumbai Metro Line 3 is a fully underground corridor, there are Passenger Safety Doors (PSDs) in place. In addition to a 24/7 surveillance mechanism in place, better evacuation systems especially considering women, toilet facilities, and diaper changing facilities have been introduced,” Bhide told Miloni Bhatt, Editor - Digital Broadcast, EconomicTimes.com at ET Trailblazers, a multimedia series where we track trailblazing women leaders across various fields.
Mumbai’s public transport paradigm and the metro intervention
Mumbai, Bhide explained, has always been a public-transport city with an overwhelming 85% of the city’s commuting depending on public transport, thanks to its suburban rail network. Indeed, several books and Bollywood films have captured the spirit of the saturated “Mumbai Local”, where a Mumbaikar is waging a daily war to sustain their labour and dignity. The heart of Mumbai might be its Hindi cinepolis, but the spirit of the original financial capital of the country where even an auto driver is said to be excited about the stock market is perhaps no less cinematic.

However, with changing times the suburban rail landscape required a revolutionary breakthrough to sustain the city’s changing influxes of commerce, owing to the emergence of new work areas following the unlocking of new lands and the coming up of new business areas, which were not connected by the suburban rail network. Moreover, it was not easy to expand a suburban rail network at grade that could sustain a broad-gauge dimension.

Therefore, the old dynamic of overburdening the suburban rail network bearing 85% of the city’s commuting load was no longer an option. Hence, gradually, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) bus route system started evolving dynamically to take on 35 to 40% of the load. Simultaneously, commuters started using more motor vehicles which, in turn, gave rise to the problem of road congestion.

“Hence, from 2004 onwards, the city started working on its metro network, and the master plan was prepared. However, executing these kinds of projects in a city like Mumbai was a huge challenge, and especially where land is such a scarce commodity,” said Bhide on a succinct history of the intervention that the Mumbai Metro Rail spearheaded.

Ms @AshwiniBhide MD, MMRC along with Mr. C.M.Jadhav, ED (Civil) & Mr. Rajeev Kumar, ED (S&T) & Mr. Praphull Wagh, CGM (Electrical) today visited the #MarolNaka & #MIDC metro stations and reviewed the ongoing progress. pic.twitter.com/3Z4v34ch1c

— MumbaiMetro3 (@MumbaiMetro3) May 5, 2023

Mumbai Metro Line 3: Second lifeline
Indeed, set to navigate its passage through a highly congested and underserved neighbourhood, this underground Mumbai Metro 3 line is expected to have a significant impact on Mumbai's transport network, Bhide said. Thus far, Mumbaikars have relied solely on the suburban rail network for travelling between South and North Mumbai. This is where Mumbai Metro Line 3 is projected to usher in a significant breakthrough by not only decongesting the suburban rail network, but also engineering East-West connectivity, Bhide said.

Additionally, Line 3 will also connect hitherto unconnected areas, which are currently untapped by the city’s lifeline, the suburban rail system. It will also bring into its fold six major Central Business Districts (CBDs) or work areas where there is a dense concentration of movement of the labour workforce.

In addition to connecting with the central railway—the overarching public transport network—Line 3 has been envisaged to integrate the Trans-Harbour Link and and all other metro corridors including the entire stretch of the metro lines 2A and 7 in its route map.

In fact, the 1995-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Maharashtra cadre, painted a picture of smart mobility for Mumbai, merging the perks of lesser emissions or green mobility with the benefits of technologically-enhanced and seamless connectivity.

“It will redefine the way the city develops because as we have seen in the past, the suburban rail route has defined the way the city developed. But, now, I think Mumbai Metro line 3 has the capacity to be the second lifeline of Mumbai,” said Bhide.

“And since Mumbai is the financial capital of India, it will never lose its importance although the nature of businesses might change, and it will always attract different kinds of employment. And, that is where we have to ensure this smooth and seamless kind of transport connectivity across modes of transport,” Bhide signed off.

Catch the full interview here.
The ET Trailblazers conversation series is among EconomicTimes.com’s diversity and inclusion initiatives to celebrate women leaders and changemakers driving change and impact across various fields. The ET Prime Women Leadership Awards, India’s most prestigious awards conferred to women leaders and changemakers, is another key diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative by the EconomicTimes.com. You can learn more about the programme here.