CSMT-Panvel elevated line plan could be back on track

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) will send reports on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Panvel to the Railway Board for approval after its study.

The plans to build an elevated corridor from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Panvel and between Panvel, Vasai and Virar may be put back on track.

A MRVC report on the elevated track is supposed to reach the Railway Board for approval soon.(AFP)

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) will send reports on the elevated corridors to the Railway Board for approval, after a comprehensive transportation study (CTS) by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) found the projects viable.

According to the CTS, both the projects will be required for the region. “MMRDA, in the study, has stressed on the need for both the projects. We will send a report to the Railway Board, attaching the transport study report,” said a senior MRVC official.

Both the projects were put on hold by the Union cabinet, which had asked MRVC to study them again, taking into consideration other Metro corridors in the city, the official said.

The reports on the elevated corridors will be sent to the railway ministry for a review in August and if approved, it will be forwarded to the Niti Aayog and Union cabinet. If cleared, the projects will be announced in the Union budget of 2020-2021.

Rs. 500CR ALLOCATED TO INCREASE SPEED OF MUM-DELHI TRAINS

The Indian Railways on Wednesday tabled the pink book, which consists of projects that received approval in the new budget, in Parliament.

The ministry has allocated Rs. 500 crore to increase the speed of trains on the Mumbai- New Delhi route. A total of Rs. 578.7 crore has been allocated to Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP), of which Rs. 244.92 crore has been allocated to MUTP-2; Rs. 283.78 crore to MUTP-3; and Rs. 50 crore to MUTP-3A.

The Central Railway also received a budgetary allocation of Rs. 154 crore for Belapur-Seawoods-Uran railway line. Funds were also allocated for the construction of road overbridges (ROB) at Vikhroli station and at other stations on the central and western lines.