Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
Mumbai: Around 300 kms of track would be added to the railway network in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) in the days to come, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in what comes as a major announcement in the run up to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly polls.
The suburban railway network is considered Mumbai’s lifeline.
These projects involve Rs 16,240 crores and are in various stages of implementation.
Vaishnav, who was in Mumbai, last week, reviewed the projects and also visited the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), which is undergoing a redevelopment.
The MMR accounts for the twin districts of Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban and large stretches of the neighbouring districts of Palghar, Thane and Raigad.
The Central Railway (CR) and Western Railway (WR) runs the suburban railway network and aptly considered Mumbai’s lifeline as lakhs of people use it on a daily basis to commute in the financial capital of Mumbai.
The Central Railway projects under implementation are CSMT-Kurla 5th & 6th line (17.5 km) project of which Phase-I Parel – Kurla of 10.1Km is targeted to be completed by December 2025, Kalyan – Asangaon 4th line (32 km) project for which land acquisition is in progress (expected to be completed by December 2026), Phase-l Asangaon - Kasara (expected to be completed by February 2025) & Phase-II Kalyan- Asangaon (which would be over by December 2025) of
Kalyan-Kasara 3rd line (67 km) project and Nilje-Kopar double chord line (5 km) project are under progress.
Western Railway’s Mumbai Central-Borivali 6th line (30 km) project of which Khar- Goregaon section (8.9 km) is commissioned and remaining Goregaon - Borivali (8.2 km) is targeted to be completed by March 2025 also for Naigaon - Juichandra double chord line (6 Km) project work is under progress.
It also includes Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) projects, as follows:
- Panvel-Karjat (29.6 km) suburban corridor whose earth work, tunneling and bridge works is in progress and likely to be completed by December 2025
- Airoli-Kalwa elevated suburban corridor link project whose Phase-I Digha Gaon Station has already been commissioned
- Utility shifting, earth work and bridge work of Kalyan Badlapur 3rd & 4th line (14.05 km) project is in progress (expected to be completed by December 2025)
- Earth work and bridge work of Virar-Dahanu Road 3rd & 4th line (64 km) project is in progress and Utility shifting for Borivali-Virar 5th & 6th line (26 km) project is also ongoing, which is expected to be completed by December 2027.