Borivli to get new platform

Trains along the western line will be delayed by two minutes for next the 82 days starting November 26, reports Shashank Rao.

Trains along the western line will be delayed by two minutes for next the 82 days starting November 26.

HT Image

The delay is because trains will have to be rescheduled once the construction work for an additional track and platform at Borivli begins.

The work is expected to be completed by February 2010.

The Western Railway (WR) is closing the track touching platform 6 until then. This will cause a rescheduling of nine-coach trains. The daily train starting from Borivli at 7.13 pm will be cancelled. Schedules of shuttle trains between Borivli and Dahanu Road will also change.

Many trains will now terminate at and originate from Andheri, Goregaon, Malad, Bhayander and Vasai Road.

Services on platforms 7 and 8 at Borivli will continue. “We will conduct a track management system study for platforms 7 and 8 once the new platform 6A is ready in February,” said a senior WR official on condition of anonymity. “If we find that either of the platforms is used less frequently then we will make it redundant.”

Commuters had staged strong protests in June against platforms 7 and 8 saying they were a long walk from platform 1 and the exit.

The new platform 6A—being constructed as a ‘test case’ on the east side of Borivli at a cost of Rs 31 crore--will be mainly utilized for outstation trains except for a few local services like the new 15-coach trains.

If the plan succeeds then the WR will implement it on other stations beyond Borivli under the second phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project.