The Central Railways (CR) is awaiting permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the removal of 60 trees at its Kurla yard so it can extend the maintenance line for fifteen-coach rakes, and thereby introduce new trains.
The delegation of senior CR officials met BMC officials last week to discuss the long-awaited permissions. The Kurla car shed is inadequate to cater to 15-car rakes, and several trees will have to be removed to extend the pit line.
Due to the limited length of the maintenance line, maintenance of 15 car rakes is currently divided into two parts. In the first shift, 12 coaches are maintained and cleaned, while the remaining 3 coaches are done in a second shift, making the process difficult and time-consuming. The process involves shunting of coaches completely from the maintenance area and then reversed to do remaining work.
One of the senior officials from the Tree authority, said on condition of anonymity, "The meeting was positive and they have principally agreed to grant the sanction. The official sanction will be granted soon in the larger interest of the public. The Central Railways is keen to follow all mandatory requirements, so the question of not sanctioning does not arise."
Narendra Patil, CPRO, Central Railway, said, "The sanction is long pending. Once the approval is granted we will start working on removal of trees as per the Tree authority's guidelines. The extended line would help maintaining 15 car rakes quickly. The extension will also help us increase additional services in the near future."
"Currently, no spare rakes are available for the Karjat-Kasara section, but we are awaiting new rakes from the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) very soon. Then we we can initiate additional services."
In October last year, the first 15-coach rake was introduced between CSTM and Kalyan stations. Currently, there are sixteen services of 15 rake-trains available. These halts at Dadar, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Thane and Dombivali.
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