Passengers travelling from western suburbs and far off to domestic airport via Metro train will have to get down at International Airport as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to terminate the earlier planned Metro corridor between Bhayandar and domestic airport which would have connected Terminal 2 (T2) with the western suburbs due to technical challenges underground. However, according to MMRDA, passengers can get down at T2 and take Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro-III underground corridor up to domestic airport. It said that the proposed Metro corridors at the airport will be integrated with each other and also with T2. An MMRDA official said, "We had plans to extend Dahisar East-Andheri East Metro-VII corridor to domestic airport but with Metro-III running underground, we are facing technical challenges." The currently under construction Dahisar East-Andheri East Metro-VII elevated corridor may extend up to Bhayandar on the northern end, and another underground extension had been proposed till domestic airport which will now be terminated at the international airport. The overall 13.5-km-long extension on both the northern and southern end will cost around Rs 6,518 crore, according to estimations of MMRDA. The construction work on both the extensions is expected to start by year-end. Pravin Darade, Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, said, "The construction work for both extensions on both ends of Metro-VII will start soon, and we are going to float bids for appointing contractors for civil construction within next 15 days." Meanwhile, the international airport also known as t-2 is set to become the hub of Metro connectivity considering it will have a Metro going towards western suburbs and further, followed by Metro-3 that will take one towards south Mumbai along with a proposed high speed Metro corridor planned between Mumbai international airport and the under construction Navi Mumbai International Airport. Domestic airport is home for Indigo, Air Deccan and Spice Jet carriers, while the other domestic services are operated from Terminal 2. CHALLENGES

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