Title - High-level committee speed up work on elevated corridor: CM

MUMBAI: Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday announced that a high-level committee of officials be formed to improve coordination with Railways, for expediting work on the Mumbai-Nagpur high-speed corridor

The state government wants Railway to bring down travel time on CSTM-Panvel elevated corridor from the proposed 50 minutes to 35 minutes, while Railway has asked for a floor space index (FSI) of more than five to make these projects financially viable.

In the meeting at Sahyadri Guest house, the Railway board chairman along with other senior railway officials gave two presentations on elevated corridor projects to Chavan and members of the state cabinet committee.

According to railway sources, Railway board chairman has said that an FSI of more than five will be required for both the elevated corridor projects. For CSTMPanvel elevated corridor he has hinted for variable FSI depending upon the land to be made available for the commercial exploitation by the state government.

Railway has planned 63-km-long Churchgate-Virar and 49-km-long CSTM-Panvel elevated corridor. Announced in 2008-09 railway budget, Chuchgate-Virar project is in its advance stage and state government is expected to sign state support agreement (SSA) for the project before the end of this month. The CSTMPanvel elevated corridor is expecting approval from railway and state government.

It was the second meeting within 15 days between the state and Railways on elevated corridor projects. The previous meeting was held on October 3, in which benefits and key features of the projects were discussed in detail.

A senior railway official told that for CSTM-Panvel corridor 70% land is in possession of Railways and the remaining need to be procured from agencies like CIDCO and BPT. Rehabilitation and resettlement (R and R) is limited to 228 structures between Kurla and Mankhurd section, where some hutments and shops need to be removed for project.

“Railway has proposed travel time of around 50 minutes between CSTM-Panvel, against the present 77 minutes journey time. But the state wants to reduce it further. The railway board chairman has directed Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) to assess the possibility of doing the same,” said a senior railway official.

“Apart from elevated corridors state government also wants Railway to take CSTM-Nagpur high-speed corridor project on priority, for which state has completed primary engineering survey,” said a senior railway official. The state planned the corridor via cities like Pune, Ahmadnagar, Nanded, Yavatmal and Vardha.

A German engineering firm, Vohsing, gave a presentation on 880-km-long high-speed corridor between CSTM-Nagpur. According to the presentation, trains will run at a speed of 350 kmph and will cover the distance between two cities in 4-5 hours, which require minimum 11 hours at present. The estimated fare for Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Nagpur journey on the highspeed corridor is Rs1300-1400 and Rs3000-3500 respectively.