Mumbai, Oct 24 (IANS): The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday accorded approval to the much-debated new metro project for Thane district, besides another Metro corridor to provide an east-west connectivity within Mumbai.

The first is the 24-km Thane-Bhiwandi-Kalyan Metro 5 corridor which would be constructed at a cost of Rs 8,416 crore and would be the first in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, outside the country's commercial capital.

It will have 17 stations and the trains shall have six coaches in each train with an estimated daily ridership of around 229,000 by 2021, increasing to 334,000 by 2031.

The stations linking the Metro 5 line will be Kalyan APMC, Kalyan, Sahajanand Chowk, Durgadi Fort, Kongaon, Govegaon MIDC, Rajouli Village, Temghar, Gopal Nagar, Bhiwandi, Dhamankar Naka, Anjur Phata, Purna, Kalher, Kasheli, Balkumbh Naka and Kapurbawdi in Thane.

The 14.50-km long Mumbai Metro 6 Corridor would run between Swami Samarth Nagar-Jogeshwari-Kanjurmarg-Vikhroli and will be built at a cost of Rs 6,672 crore.

It will have 13 stations and the trains shall have six coaches in each train with an estimated daily ridership of around 650,000 by 2021, increasing to 769,000 by 2031.

The stations en route would be Swami Samarth Nagar, Adarsh Nagar, Momin Nagar, JVLR, Shyam Nagar, Mahakali Caves, SEEPZ Village, Saki Vihar Road, Ram Baug, Powai Lake, IIT-B Powai, Kanjurmarg West and Vikhroli EEH.

Besides, the government has also taken up a detailed project report for the proposed metro line covering Dahisar-Mira Road.

Meanwhile, work on three new Metro corridors for Mumbai -- Metro 2A (Dahisar-DN Nagar), Metro 7 (Dahisar East-Andheri-East) and Metro 3 (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) -- is underway in full swing.

Work at other corridors like Metro 2B (DN Nagar-BKC-Mankhurd) and Metro 4 (Wadala-Ghatkopar-Thane-Kasarvadali) is expected to start shortly.