On Wednesday, July 24, the Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a budget of INR 15,940 crore for railway development in Maharashtra, where he also presented a complete plan for Mumbai's rail transport.
Here are the most important projects aiming to improve infrastructure and facilities for commuters:
Introduction of New Signal System
To improve safety and efficiency, the headway between two suburban trains will be reduced. A communication-based train control (CBTC) system will be installed along the Churchgate-Virar corridor. This system will reduce the distance between two trains from 180 (3 minutes) to 150 seconds (2.5 minutes).
Increase in Mumbai local train services
The new signalling system will allow the operation of more train services on Mumbai suburban routes. Over the next five years, 250 suburban train services will be added on the central and western lines. This will benefit around 75 lakh daily commuters. Currently, WR and CR collectively run about 3,200 suburban services daily.
Expansion of Railway Tracks
Future projects will also see an expansion of railway tracks. These include the quadrupling of railway tracks between Virar and Dahanu. Additional lines will be added between Mumbai Central and Borivali, as well as CSMT and LTT stations.
The 5th and 6th railway tracks between Kurla and CSMT will be installed as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). They will offer distinct routes for local and mail-express trains. The new Karjat-Panvel suburban corridor is also in the works.
New Terminals
To ease pressure on existing terminals, Mumbai will get four new rail terminuses. These will be at Jogeshwari, Vasai, Kalyan, and Panvel-Kalamboli. The Jogeshwari terminal will be completed by the end of this fiscal year. It will cost INR 76 crore to build and will run eight pairs of trains.
The Vasai terminus will have a maintenance hub. It is being built at the cost of INR 162 crore and will have two platforms for 16 trains each. The Kalyan and Panvel-Kalamboli terminuses will cost INR 850 crore and INR 228 crore, respectively.
Additionally, the railways plan to launch 50 more mail-express trains from Mumbai. The terminal project will require about 7.5 acres of land. They will serve long-distance trains and prevent long-distance trains from entering the city.
Projects in Maharashtra
Maharashtra is working on 41 projects worth INR 81,580 crore across a 5,877 kilometre rail network. Under the Amrit Bharat Station Plan, 128 stations in Maharashtra will be renovated. The state installs 180 km of new lines annually and has fully electrified its railways.
The Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has approved Kavach 4.0. This system will speed up the adoption of automated railway protection systems. It includes optical fibre, software, and hardware to improve safety.
As per railway minister's statement, the allocation of INR 15940 is 13.5 times what was spent on average during the UPA years. During the UPA years, the allocation for Maharashtra was INR 1,171 crore on average.
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