Mumbai suburban rail service to get boost

Lalu Prasad on Friday announced a slew of measures to overcome the problems of suburban rail services of Mumbai city.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday announced a slew of measures to overcome the problems of suburban rail services of Mumbai city.

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Presenting the Budget for 2006-07 in the Lok Sabha, he said the work of DC-AC conversion was in progress with a view to improving and expanding the services of suburban rail.

He said the DC-AC conversion between Igatpuri-Kasaraghat section of Central Railway has been completed in the first phase of this work.

The conversion of Kasara-Titwala section will be completed during 2006-07.

Thereafter, the conversion work up to Mumbai CSTM and Churchgate will be completed in the coming years, in a time bound manner, he said.

Despite the limitations of the present system, keeping the problems of the metropolitan commuters in mind, four additional rakes for the suburban services of Western Railway will be made available in the coming year.

In addition, two more rakes for passenger services in the Thane-Turbhe section of Central Railway will be made available by March 2007.