Mumbai: As part of the state government’s efforts to augment mass transit across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), new metro routes spanning 60-70 kilometres are likely to be operationalised this year, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday while inaugurating three key infrastructure projects.CM Devendra Fadnavis (@CMOMaharashtra/PTI)“The government is working on enhancing the carrying capacity of metro rail corridors in the MMR to nearly 70 lakh, complementing the suburban railway system that currently carries around 90 lakh passengers. The opening of the Chembur Metro station on Line 2B is expected to strengthen the public transport network in the eastern suburbs,” Fadnavis said.The three projects inaugurated on Thursday included the Metro Line 2B extension from Diamond Garden till Chembur Naka, the Santacruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) extension till the Western Express Highway (WEH), and launch of of the Arjun tunnel boring machine (TBM) for the second of the twin tunnels between Thane and Borivali.The projects were inaugurated in the presence of Fadnavis, deputy chief minister and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) chairman Eknath Shinde and senior government officials.Extension of Metro Line 2B line till the Chembur metro station will bring it closer to the suburban rail and monorail networks and create a seamless interchange between metro, mono and suburban railways, MMRDA officials said.“Once the entire corridor (Line 2B) becomes operational, the travel time will reduce by 50-75%, compared with travel by road under existing traffic conditions,” an MMRDA official said.In case of the SCLR, inauguration of the final 1.40-km elevated link between the Bharat Nagar Road-Mumbai University area and Vakola junction is expected to improve access to the Bandra Kurla Complex and the airport. With the entire 10.30-km integrated SCLR network now operational, congestion around Kalina, Vakola and Kalanagar is likely to ease considerably, officials said.The third major initiative is the launch of TBM-2, named ‘Arjuna’, for the Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel project. The machine will work on the second of the two underground road tunnels being constructed beneath Sanjay Gandhi National Park.“The twin tunnels are expected to cut the Thane-Borivali road distance from around 23 km to 11 km and reduce the journey time from nearly 90 minutes to around 15 minutes. About one lakh commuters could benefit from the project every day,” an MMRDA official said.On Thursday, the 1.62-km, four-lane BKC Connector Flyover was named after former Maharashtra chief minister Barrister Babasaheb Anantrao Bhosale.