CST-Panvel corridor on wrong track?

Even before the work on Rs15,000-crore Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-Panvel elevated corridor has begun, numerous hurdles have already started cropping up.

The project is threatening to go the way of the jinxed Oval Maidan-Churchgate-Virar corridor with the Central Railway (CR) writing to Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) over four major differences between the two agencies.

The letter, written by the operations department of CR on July 26, touches upon issues which officials say might hit the project in terms of time and money.

Here are some of the major differences between CR and MRVC over the CST-Panvel elevated corridor:

Gauge the hurdle
One of the oldest debate in the Indian Railways is whether to go for the standard gauge, like all developed countries, or stick to the broad gauge that is the staple across rail lines across India.

The elevated corridor between CST-Panvel is being envisaged as a fully air-conditioned high-speed line which will start at CST and end at the proposed new airport at Navi Mumbai.

The project will be a public-private partnership (PPP) with the state government and the MRVC favouring the standard gauge and Central Railway opting for broad gauge. The MRVC and state government argument is that the private firm that will build and operate the line can easily buy standard gauge coaches off the shelf from developed countries. It would not have to wait for the railway’s production units to build broad gauge air-conditioned coaches.

The two major arguments in the letter is that the standard gauge would make the CST-Panvel new corridor a ‘standalone’ one and in case of emergencies, existing rakes of the CR will not be able to ply on it.

Loaded with woes
The Central Railway said that having standard gauge trains, that too with only eight coaches, would not be sufficient to take the load from the super-saturated Harbour lines.
The Harbour line at the moment is possibly the fastest growing suburban section in the country with a passenger growth of 9.22% against the annual average of 3% for both Western Railway and CR’s mainline.

The point CR officials are raising is that unlike the 3.66m broad gauge train which could carry lot of passengers, the 3.2m wide standard gauge train would not be able to do so.
“Remember if the elevated CST-Panvel corridor becomes a fully air-conditioned standard gauge system, it might be unable to take the load from the existing twin lines of Harbour line. The passengers on Harbour line also includes the lower income groups and it would be unfair on them,” said an official advocating the traditional broad gauge.

Station tussle
While the MRVC for the sake of speed wants the first station on the elevated line to be Wadala, 8 kms away from CST, Central Railway officials want the first station after CST to be Dockyard Road.

“The proposed CST-Kalyan elevated line will have its first station after CST at Byculla. We want Dockyard to be Byculla’s counterpart on the CST-Panvel high-speed corridor because we believe there might be a lot of changes in the port area between CST and Wadala in the next few decades. And this would require a station like Dockyard to cater to these changes,” said an official.

Alignment issue
It is more of a technical issue with CR having certain differences in the alignment of the line once it crosses Sandhurst Road to go towards CST Terminus. The CR contention is that the twin lines of the elevated corridor should be somewhere between the suburban and the long-distance lines so that both types of commuters can use it. “It is something that will have to be worked out progressively,” said an official.