Overview
- Engineers found that the Airport Colony station, ramp and overhead electrification on roughly 940 metres of elevated track exceed the AAI’s air-funnel height limits, creating a regulatory impasse.
- MMRDA submitted a formal plea in 2025 asking the AAI to relax the height restrictions and is still awaiting the authority’s final technical response that will determine the next steps.
- The MMRDA has blamed its SYSTRA-led general consultant for failing to account for the extra height required by the overhead electrification system and has discontinued the consultant’s services after earlier legal disputes.
- Officials say a rejected plea would force demolition and reconstruction of nearly 1 km of elevated works, risking about ₹250 crore in additional costs and pushing the project cost above the current ₹812 crore.
- Most underground civil work has been completed and TBM breakthroughs came in April and July 2025, but elevated works remain paused and the line’s opening will be delayed until AAI and safety approvals are resolved.