Commuters urge Central Railway to run more trains on Nerul, Belapur, Kharkopar line

The residents of Ulwe and its peripheries are inconvenienced as the Central Railway (CR) has not been running sufficient trains on the Nerul-Belapur-Kharkopar line.

The trains on this line ferry the commuters to Nerul and Belapur stations alternately and thereby give access to trains on the harbour line (Panvel-CSMT). However, the CR is running very few trains on that line.

Presently, the first train leaves Kharkopar for Nerul at 6.30am and then there is no train for the next one hour and fifteen minutes. The second train leaves Kharkopar for Belapur at 7.45am while the third train leaves Kharkopar again for Nerul at 8.25am after a 40-minute gap.

Shruti Mane, a 31-year-old resident of Ulwe, said, “I have to reach my office at BKC every day at 8.30am and I travel up to Kurla station by train. The first train is too early for me, but I also cannot reach the office on time by boarding the second train. So, I take the first train and thus end up wasting around half-an-hour daily. I know many others from my neighbourhood who are facing the same issue.”

Vikash Puri, 45, another Ulwe resident, said, “In the evenings, one train leaves Belapur for Kharkopar at 7.57pm. After that, the next train leaves for Kharkopar from Nerul at 8.55pm. Therefore, for most of the time, we have to travel in autos by paying exorbitant fares. Taking our inconveniences into consideration, the CR should run a few more trains here.”

Bhakti Dave, president of Panvel Pravashi Sangha, said, “As per the norms, trains on any line should be available for every four minutes. We understand that CR too has limitations. But a gap of one hour and fifteen minutes is too long. They should think of increasing the number of trains as early as possible.”

Shivaji Sutar, chief PRO of CR however, said that they don’t have any plan to increase the number of trains on that line for now.

“On December 1, we revised the time table and increased the number of trains on that line during peak hours. Now in the peak hours, the trains are available every half-an-hour. But we don’t have any plan to provide more trains in the mornings, evenings or during the day,” he said.

Sutar also refused to explain the reason behind not providing more trains during those hours.

The Nerul-Belapur-Kharkopar line is the first phase of the Nerul-Belapur-Uran Corridor. The work of the second phase is now going on and around 75% work has been finished so far.