Thane, Nov 17 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Rajan Vichare has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanking him for starting the Belapur-Pendhar metro rail line without any formal function and urged him to commission the Digha Gaon railway station.

People living within the limits of the 11 stations on the route were held to ransom due to the inordinate delay in the inauguration of the railway line, Vichare said in its letter.

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The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) on Thursday said services on metro rail line 1 between Belapur and Pendhar in Navi Mumbai will begin on Friday.

Services on the 11.10-km route were being thrown open to the public on the direction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde “without any official programme”, it said.

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Following the criticism faced by the people of Navi Mumbai and the signature campaign undertaken by the Shiv Sena (UBT), the prime minister did not wait for any formal inauguration and directed the chief minister to start the services after Diwali, Vichare wrote, welcoming the decision.

The MP also urged the prime minister to commission the Digha Gaon station on the Airoli-Kalwa elevated route, which has been ready for the last seven months.

Several IT companies have come up in Digha village, and people travelling to work depend on Airoli or Thane railway station for their commute, he said, adding that several crores of taxpayers' money was spent to construct the railway station.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)