Harbour line fast train proposal on track

Navi Mumbaiities, there is a Diwali gift waiting from the railways.

The planning agency of Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has proposed a fast corridor between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Panvel on the Harbour route.

This is a long-term project as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) Phase III that will start by 2011.
Confirming the development, MRVC managing director P. Sehgal said: “It is a long-term project that would require detailed planning.”

As per the initial plan, the fast local will start from CST and after Cotton Green the route will be elevated for some distance. Additional lines will also be set up for this purpose.

“We are studying the route and will decide which all stations can be elevated and which can go underground. There is no problem of land between Panvel and Mankhurd,” said a senior railway official.

A meeting will be held next week between MRVC and Central Railway officials to discuss the proposal.

Sources in MRVC said the major hindrance for a timely implementing and commissioning the project is the time taken in planning and its execution. MUTP-II for railways was planned in 1994 but it took 14 years to kick off.

Meanwhile, MRVC is extending the slow Harbour line on the western side beyond Andheri up to Goregaon. It has already started work and levelled the path where additional tracks will be placed.

Sources in Western Railway (WR) feel the problem lies at Jogeshwari station where there’s not much space for expansion.

Platform number 1 lies next to a road maintained by the municipal corporation. “There is a proposal to extend the platform from the front or the back as a separate platform for the Harbour line, but it is yet to be decided,” said an WR official.