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Central railway awaits BMC nod to cut trees at Kurla yard

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Commuters can heave a sigh of relief. Central railway is ready to introduce new trains if Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allows it to remove trees at its Kurla yard for it to extend the maintenance line for 15-coach rake. CR authority had long ago sought sanction for cutting around 60 trees here, but Tree Authority is yet to grant permission. These trees are an obstacle in extending the pit line.

A delegation of senior CR officials met BMC officials last week to discuss the issue. Currently maintenance of 15-coach rakes takes place at Kurla car shed. But here the space is inadequate to undertake operations on a bigger scale.

How's maintenance done now?
It is difficult task to maintain 15-coach rakes; it's tedious as well as time-consuming. Currently maintenance of these rakes are undertaken in two phases. In the first phase, 12 coaches are cleaned, and then work on the remaining three are taken up. This involves shunting out all the coaches from the maintenance area and then bringing them back to complete the work.

A senior official from Tree Authority, who took part in the meeting, said: "The meeting was positive and they have agreed in principal to grant sanction. It's now only a matter of time. CR is keen to follow all mandatory requirements, so the question of not sanctioning does not arise."

What CPRO has to say...
Narendra Patil, CPRO Central Railway, said: "Once we get approval, we will start removing trees as per Tree Authority guidelines. Extending the pit line would be our priority. The new line would help maintain 15-car rakes fast. Once the job is done, rakes would be available on time. And that in turn would help us in adding additional services."

He added: "Currently spare rakes aren't available for Karjat-Kasara section. But we are awaiting new rakes from Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC). Once we get them, we would press them into additional services in all sections. Currently there are 121 rakes for Harbour and main line, including one 15-coach Siemens rake."

When was 15-coach rakes introduced?
It was in October last year that the first 15-coach rake was introduced between CSTM and Kalyan. Currently there are 16 services of 15-rake trains available from platform no. 7 at CST station to Kalyan. They halt at Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane and Dombivli.

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