India, Jan. 15 -- Instead of the three Mumbai Metro lines that were to be partially inaugurated around Christmas last year, only a section of the Line 9 (Dahisar to the Subhash Chandra Bose Stadium) is likely to be opened on the Republic Day by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

For the last three months, MMRDA officials as well as the local MLAs had assured people that two new lines would be operational well ahead of the civic polls. Officials had said that the Metro 2B (Mandale to Diamond Garden) and Metro 9 (Dahisar East to Kashigaon) were to be inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi by December 25, but the deadline was pushed back. In addition, the Metro 2B may take at least another month to be ready f...