Railway line doubling to reduce CSMT-Karjat commute by 30 minutes
MUMBAI: Passengers travelling between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Karjat will be able to save 30 minutes of the commute time as an alternate route will be available to them due to better connectivity between Panvel and Karjat
MUMBAI: Passengers travelling between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Karjat will be able to save 30 minutes of the commute time as an alternate route will be available to them due to better connectivity between Panvel and Karjat. At present, the rail commute between Karjat and CSMT takes 130 minutes (2 hours and 10 minutes), which will be reduced to about 100 minutes with the option of travelling on the Karjat-Panvel-CSMT route, said officials.
The work of doubling the railway line between Panvel and Karjat is targeted to be completed by 2025 and the operation of trains will begin by March 2025. This will also link newly developing areas between Karjat and Panvel to the suburban train network.
Presently, commuters have to switch from the Central Railway’s main line to the Thane-Vashi trans-harbour railway corridor to travel between Panvel and Karjat.
The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation Limited (MRVC) is undertaking the construction work of the project and will acquire 29 hectares of land that includes private land and forest area. The 29.6 km of the railway line is being constructed between Panvel and Karjat railway stations at a cost of ₹2,783 crore.
“There will be a reduction of 25 to 30 minutes in journey time from CSMT to Karjat. Also, faster economic development of the area will be enabled by the project,” said Subhash Chand Gupta, chairman and managing director, MRVC.
MRVC which is presently undertaking the construction of the bridges will construct two rail flyovers at Karjat and Panvel along with the construction of three tunnels 44 bridges, 15 Road Under Bridges (RUB) and 7 Road Over Bridges (ROB).
The doubling of the suburban railway corridor between Panvel and Karjat is a part of the ₹10,947 crore Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) 3. Though the project received a green signal in 2016, it could not commence owing to hassles in acquiring the land required for the construction.
Presently, there is a single railway line of 28.15 km between Panvel and Karjat railway stations that is mainly used for the movement of goods and a limited number of outstation trains halt between both the railway stations.
Other projects in MUTP 3 include quadrupling of Virar-Dahanu Road railway line, elevated railway corridor between Airoli and Kalwa, trespass control on the mid-railway section between Central and Western Railway and procurement of local trains for the existing suburban railway network. The railways will also undertake the construction of road underbridge at Pune Expressway and ROB as a part of the MUTP.
