Fortune India MPW 2025: How Ashwini Bhide oversees projects worth ₹5 lakh crore in Maharashtra

Ashwini Bhide, principal secretary to the chief minister of Maharashtra and managing director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), oversees as many as 30 infrastructure projects worth ₹5 lakh crore under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

In a fireside chat titled ‘Reimagining Maharashtra’ at Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women (MPW) Awards 2025, Bhide said that in her current role, she is leading the CM’s war room, which tracks and monitors all important projects that are happening across the state.

“From transport to energy transition and railways to water resource development projects, we are tracking 25-30 projects. The investments in these projects are to the tune of ₹5 lakh crore. My role is to ensure that all these projects are on time,” Bhide said.

These kinds of mega projects are very difficult to implement and they go through a lot of hurdles, admitted Bhide. “They go through a very rigorous kind of framework from start to finish. There are a lot of hurdles in terms of land availability, clearances, and financing. My job is to track these projects on a real-time basis. These projects are spread throughout the state,” she said.

In her role as the MMRC MD, Bhide is also implementing the first fully underground metro corridor of India, the Aqua line of Mumbai Metro. “About 8 million people travel daily on Mumbai’s suburban network (the local). The rest travel either by buses or cars,” said Bhide.

She said the financial capital has limited landmass because of its peninsular nature. “Delhi has more than 28,000 km of road network while Mumbai has only 2,000 km,” she said, citing it as a reason for congested roads.

On the Mumbai suburban trains, Bhide said the commute on the suburban rail system is very efficient but not comfortable and safe. “If we want people to travel in an efficient, comfortable, safe, and reliable mode of transport, then the only option is the metro,” said Bhide.

“Once the entire metro network is completed, we are going to double the capacity of public transport. Almost 10 million people will be able to travel via public transport,” she said.

She said the metro traverses through all those areas that are not connected by the public transport system. “Mumbai suburban rail system has certain limitations. It can’t go into different corners of the city because Mumbai’s businesses have flourished along this corridor,” she said.

Bhide, however, added that so much economic activity is now happening in areas that are not connected by the suburban rail system, but the metro has the flexibility to reach those areas either by going underground or through elevation. “It can reach each corner of the city,” she said.

Bhide said Mumbai Metro Line 3 expects 85% of its ridership to come from the roads. “We want the car, bus and taxi commuters to shift to the metro. Some metro lines are parallel to the suburban rail system. They will decongest the existing railway system,” she said.

“Once the entire network is completed, then decongestion of Mumbai’s roads is inevitable,” reassured Bhide.

On overseeing infrastructure projects, Bhide said most of the times projects get delayed because hundreds of externalities create a lot of hurdles in the implementation of these projects. “Mumbai is one of the densest and most congested cities in the world. Not a single piece of land without encumbrance. It is very disruptive. In Mumbai Metro Line 3, we have built almost 56 km of tunnels beneath the city, below the most congested neighbourhoods. Doing that is really tough, and while doing that we have to take care of all regulatory aspects,” she said.

“While I was working on Mumbai Metro Line 3, we faced hundreds of litigations in courts across the country. You have to deal with that. While doing that, you have to ensure that there are not many cost and time overruns,” Bhide said.