RailEnquiry

Mumbai: India’s Western Railway (WR) has embarked upon an ambitious Rs17,836 crore (Dh11/82 billion_ project, involving the construction of an elevated rail corridor between the Oval ground in south Mumbai and Virar, a satellite township of the metropolis.
The Western Railway authorities, who have prepared a blueprint for the project, made a formal presentation of the project before Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and other state government functionaries, at meeting held at the State-run Sahydri Guest house here on Friday.
When completed, the project — which envisages sunning of trains at a top speed of 100km/ — will contribute to carrying 90,000 passengers every hour in each direction, thus easing crowds in the suburban trains of Western Railway.
Making a presentation before the chief minister and other state government officials, Western Railway General Manager Mahesh Kumar said that along the 60km route between the Oval ground in south Mumbai and Virar, there will be 26 stations in all.
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While five of the stations will be located underground, 19 will be elevated and two stations will be on ground level. The trials with 15 compartments will be run on this corridor, Kumar said.
The Western Railway is working in tandem with various government and private agencies like Bombay Electric Supply & Transport (BEST) undertaking, Reliance, Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), Tata Powers, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) to give a formal shape to the project.
At the meeting, the chief minister assured the Western Railway authorities that his government will take up the proposal with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Planning Commission and other sanctioning authorities at the Centre to have the project cleared at the earliest.
The meeting was attended among others by State Chief Secretary Jayant Kumar Banthia, Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Seetharam Kunte and senior railway officials.
The importance of the elevated rail corridor between the Oval ground and Virar should be seen in light of the fact that the Western Railway currently runs 1,250 services — carrying 3.4 to 3.5 million commuters — on the existing tracks on the ground on this route, in a day.
“Once the elevated corridor is ready, the commuters will be able to travel more comfortably on both the existing railway corridor and elevated one,” a senior Western Railway official said.
Official sources said that the Western Railway will call for tenders for the construction of the elevated corridors in the coming weeks. The Railway Ministry is expected to award the contract to the chosen developer by March 2013.