Mumbai's pride: A swanky Metro Rail service

With the newly launched Metro rail service, Mumbai has received a major infrastructure boost. Though a successful trial run was conducted in May 2013, the Metro was finally rolled out only on June 8.

This comes as a welcome relief to passengers who travel in the crowded suburban trains that carry 7 lakh people every day.

The 11.4 km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar stretch will have trains every four minutes and 12 elevated stations.

The journey on the 11.4 km stretch will reduce to 20 minutes which otherwise takes around 90 minutes at present by road.

Every coach can carry 375 passengers, while the entire train can transport 1,500 commuters.

Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) and the state government have been locked in a dispute over the fares for quite some time.

The operator fixed a minimum fare of Rs 10 and a maximum of Rs 40 for a one way journey, going against the Maharashtra government's notified fare band of Rs 9-13, citing cost escalation in the three-phase project, work on which began eight years ago.

MMOPL is a joint venture company comprising Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure, Veolia Transport and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

For a month you can travel anywhere on the route for just Rs 10.

You can buy a smartcard for Rs 50 and recharge it according to your needs. The smartcards will be provided at all stations. These cards have to be punched before you start the journey and after you reach the destination, the fare will be deducted.

Customer care centres will be operational in all stations.

ATMs, food and beverage outlets will be set up in all stations.

Mumbai Metro is India's first public private partnership metro project in which construction, operation and maintenance were allotted to a private player.