Five years later, the same proposal has resurfaced after Member of Parliament Arvind Sawant questioned the Railway ministry for not taking the need for an elevated corridor seriously
In September 2012, the Railway ministry questioned the need for having an elevated corridor between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Kalyan. Five years later, the same proposal has resurfaced after Member of Parliament Arvind Sawant questioned the Railway ministry for not taking the need for an elevated corridor seriously.
"The railways have been talking about an elevated rail corridor every now and then. They want one on CSMT-Panvel and other till Virar but why is nothing being planned on the CSMT-Kalyan route where trains go jam-packed," said Sawant at an event held at CSMT on Wednesday.
According to sources, this comes after Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal asked his officials to conduct a pre-feasibility study of the same project a few days back.
The demand for this elevated corridor was first raised by then-Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi in his 2012-13 budget. It was around the same time that a study on elevated corridors between Churchgate-Virar and CSMT-Panvel was first announced. A pre-feasibility study was carried out for this 55-km route too, for which a cost of around Rs 20,000 crore was estimated.
However, the Railway Board asked the Central Railway (CR) authorities to assess the project's requirement and scrapped then scrapped it in the same year.
"This project has been revived again out of political pressure. There is barely any space for us to expand with fifth and sixth lines coming up for long-distance trains and an elevated fast corridor proposed for the Harbour line connecting Navi Mumbai," said a senior railway minister. The authorities will now once again check if this new elevated corridor is viable.
BUSY JUNCTION
- Kalyan, one of the most critical stations on the Central Railway, caters to over 700 train services daily which includes long-distance trains.
- The station is used by 42 lakh commuters daily for both Main and Harbour lines.
- The alignment for the CSMT-Panvel elevated corridor has already gone through several changes before it was finally finalised. It now awaits approval from NITI Aayog.
- CR authorities are also struggling to complete work on the fifth and sixth lines on stretches like Thane-Diva, CSMT-Parel, and Parel-Kurla.
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