Work to add two lines on Mumbai's Western, Central lines moving at snail’s pace

Railways in Mumbai have been slow to complete the 5th and 6th lines to segregate suburban and long-distance trains, causing delays and cost escalation

Mumbai: It’s been over 15 years since the railways proposed and began work to add two rail lines to segregate suburban services and long-distance trains. However, work still continues on the Mumbai Central-Borivali corridor on Western Railway (WR) and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT)-Kurla corridor on Central Railway (CR).

Work to add two lines on WR, CR moving at snail’s pace

On Wednesday, WR’s general manager AK Misra took stock of the ongoing work while inspecting rail upgrades up to Dahanu, sources said. Both WR and CR have been laying these rail lines since 2008 at a snail’s pace, which is hampering the smooth running of local trains and resulting in cost escalation.

The cost of building the two rail lines on WR has touched ₹918.53 crore, up from the proposed ₹430 crore in 2008. On CR, the initial proposed cost was ₹890 crore, which has now surpassed ₹1,337 crore.

Currently, long-distance trains and suburban services ply on the same tracks. By segregating them, the railways will be able to run more local services, and improve punctuality and train efficiency, which would benefit millions of commuters.

Rajiv Singhal, a resident of Dahisar, said, “The project has been delayed for 15 years now, and the railways are struggling to complete the work. It’s unfortunate that suburban trains are affected because the fifth and sixth lines are not fully ready.”

Western Railway

While a fifth rail line exists on the Santacruz-Borivali stretch, a small patch between Khar and Bandra Terminus remains incomplete. WR authorities are constructing a sixth rail line between Khar and Borivali stations, of which the Khar-Goregaon stretch was completed in November 2023. Work on the Goregaon-Borivali stretch is expected to be completed by December.

On Wednesday, WR officials inspected the ongoing work for the sixth line between Malad and Borivali stations. “The work on the 4.7-km long Goregaon-Kandivali belt is underway, which we aim to commission by August. We have finished the earthwork, and the bridges have been laid. Presently, track linking works are in progress, which has slowed down due to rains,” said a WR official.

WR officials said the biggest reason for the delay in constructing the lines is encroachment next to tracks and difficulty in obtaining land. The work is going on at a painstakingly slow pace, largely due to a lack of political will to clear encroachments on railway land, they said.

Between Kandivali and Borivali, private land with buildings still needs to be acquired, said another WR official. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is said to be working on rehabilitating and providing alternative accommodation to project-affected persons.

Sources said slums and other soft structures close to the tracks, especially on the Malad-Kandivali-Borivali stretch, will be removed. Work on extending the Harbour line from Goregaon to Borivali is already underway. On the Goregaon-Malad stretch, for instance, WR authorities cleared grass and weeds, levelled the ground and laid the tracks. The Malad station is also being extended.

While linking the fifth line from Mahim to Santacruz at a cost of ₹10 crore, locals opposed it because the line passed through a burial ground. It was then realigned and routed via Bandra Terminus. The work for connecting rail lines at Khar with Bandra Terminus lasted almost a month. The fifth and sixth rail lines were independently connected with Bandra Terminus by slewing a 700-metre-long track and dismantling points.

Central Railway

Construction work for the fifth and sixth rail lines from CSMT to Kurla is barely inching forward, even though it started in 2008. According to senior CR officials, work on the Kurla-Parel stretch is underway, for which the Sion road overbridge will be dismantled and reconstructed.

“We are looking at redeveloping Parel Terminus,” said a CR official. “We have had discussions with the Railway Board, which has asked us to make some changes in the plan and the costing too.”

The project has been divided into two phases: Kurla-Parel and Parel-CSMT. CR needs 10,000 square metres of land on the Kurla-Parel stretch, out of which it has acquired 6,000 sq m. The acquisition of around 0.40 hectares of land at Swadeshi Mills in Kurla is underway.

The process to procure land on the Parel-CSMT stretch has also begun. Earlier this year, the authorities were looking to acquire over 1,263 sq m of land near Masjid railway station to construct the two rail lines.