The upcoming Metro Green Line 4, they tell us, will let you go to Thane from Ghatkopar with tremendous ease. Except that the closest metro station is about two km away from the local railway station in the west and nearly one km away in the east near Pant Nagar. Further, the 32.32 km line has no interchanges with the busiest stations of Ghatkopar and Chembur, the existing Ghatkopar-Versova Blue Line 1 or even the Mumbai Monorail. More? The other key line, Yellow Line 2B, has no interchange with the busiest suburban station of Kurla or even the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus.

We can only infer that whoever drew up and endorsed the plans of the existing Mumbai Metro network was not aware of the city’s commuting dynamics and the most important spots in this pattern. As the colourful lines drawn on the maps change into reality on the ground, unforeseen challenges lead to outcomes like the recent dropping of the Suman Nagar and Amar Mahal stations from the Metro Line 4.