25 services between Virar and Dahanu likely by end of March

Giving in to the long-pending demand of commuters, the Western Railway is likely to start 25 services on the Virar-Dahanu section this month.

Giving in to the long-pending demand of commuters, the Western Railway is likely to start 25 services on the Virar-Dahanu section this month.

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Sources said the final decision on the day and number of services is likely to be taken on Tuesday.

Sharat Chandrayan, chief public relations officer, WR, said, “The Virar-Dahanu services will start in this financial year itself, probably in the second half of the month.”

Some services will start from Churchgate.

“Of the 25, 15 will replace the existing 13 main line services and two will replace passenger services,” said Chandrayan.

He said that they plan to introduce 10 additional services depending on availability of rakes.

With the new addition, the existing 60-km Churchgate-Virar corridor will now become 124km-long. Also, the suburban network will become 405km, from the existing 342km.

The Central Railway (CR) might fail to fulfil the suburban commuters’ demand of introducing shuttle services from Thane to Kasara and Karjat.

In the last railway budget, former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi announced 75 suburban services would be started on the Virar-Dahanu, Thane-Kalyan and Thane-Kasara route before the end of March 2013. But, the CR is likely to put the plan on hold.

The CR needs at least 20 more rakes to complete the 1,500Volt DC to AC conversion work till Thane. Of those, five rakes were to be provided by the WR.