Railway services on Virar-Dahanu route by June 2011

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan may be trying his best to develop areas beyond Vasai and Virar, but opening of the much-awaited 63-km Virar-Dahanu railway line has been delayed yet again. Almost 77,000 people from the Virar-Dahanu stretch commute daily to Mumbai.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan may be trying his best to develop areas beyond Vasai and Virar, but opening of the much-awaited 63-km Virar-Dahanu railway line has been delayed yet again. Almost 77,000 people from the Virar-Dahanu stretch commute daily to Mumbai.

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Even though the tracks have been laid out and technical modifications have been completed in March this year, Western Railway (WR) has cited lack of enough violet-white trains as the reason for the delay.

“We will be able to start suburban services on the Virar-Dahanu stretch post June 2011, when we expect enough trains to arrive. Right now, there is no point in running locals between Virar-Dahanu as a shuttle service already exists,” said S Chandrayan, chief public relations officer (PRO), WR.

According to sources, WR will get 27 violet-white trains from the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, in the next seven months.

At present, WR has received 58 such trains, which have been used to increase services between Virar and Andheri, which is a very crowded stretch.

Moreover, WR will also need to make arrangements for additional motormen to run trains up to Dahanu, which would take around 3 hours from Churchgate. The principal secretary of the urban development department too has asked railways to employ more number of motormen. The new lot of 44 motormen is set to join services by October-end.