dna special: Locals starting from Diva for CST a bigger nightmare

The demand for local trains to start from Diva towards CST, as a fallout of the massive Diva agitation of January 2, could turn into a far bigger hassle than the one that caused the agitation in the first place, city-based railway officials have concluded.
Officials studying the feasibility of starting locals from Diva towards CST in the morning rush hour have zeroed in on a technical problem that could adversely affect the commuters of Dombivali and Kalyan.

What is the current scenario?
Since Diva does not have terminal facilities that allow local trains to halt and go back like Thane or CST, the train would have to stop at platform one, which is the slow line moving northwards towards Dombivli and Kalyan. This would require Central Railway to replicate its Ghatkopar and Chembur mechanism – where trains stop at platform number 1 in the morning, the guard and motorman interchange positions, and the train reverses and crosses onto the slow line towards CST, also called Up local line in railway lingo.
However, with just a couple of trains from Ghatkopar and Chembur, the problem is manageable at both places. Considering the crowds at Diva, the morning rush hour might need far more trains starting from Diva, said officials.

What is the problem?
If a train, like in Ghatkopar and Chembur, has to stop and be reversed from platform number 1 of Diva station, then it would take at least 10 minutes, especially during peak hours. "After all, the motorman and guard have to walk around 300 metres through crowds to get to the opposite end," said an official.
The bigger problem is that while the train is at platform one, no train from the Thane-end of Diva can be used to the slow line to the Kalyan-end of Diva.
The official added: "It will mean that trains that go towards Dombivli and Kalyan during the morning peak hour to become CST-bound locals will be severely affected. It could create a troublesome situation at these two places, both of which are bigger suburban stations than Diva."

A complex solution
The only way CR's train-runners believe this hurdle of having line number one at Diva blocked for 10 minutes, is to allow slow trains coming towards Diva from the Thane-end to cross the three other suburban lines (Up Slow, Down Fast and Up Fast) and go to platform 3/4 of Diva, and proceed further north towards Dombivli and Kalyan.
The official said that this would mean all four lines would be blocked for the period that the trains make the cross-over from line one to the line at platform 3/4. "If any of these trains experiences a technical malfunction, it will be a nightmare at Diva. And in turn, the cascading effect will be felt between Thane and Kalyan as a whole," said the official.

The long-term solution
According to CR officials, the only hope for Diva to have trains starting from the station towards CST is when the project to add the 5th and 6th lines between Thane and Diva is complete.
Currently, the 5th and 6th line exists between Kurla and Thane, and Diva and Kalyan, with the Thane-Diva stretch being a crucial gap. "It creates an hour-glass type structure which hits the efficient running of trains on the stretch," said an official.
However, the 5th and 6th line project, pegged at around Rs135 crore, is still far from complete with Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) officials stating that the newest deadline is December 2016.
"It has some tough components. Like a road overbridge that will have to be built over the highway. Plus Diva yard, a huge one, will have to remodelled. The tunnel under Parsik Hills, around 165 metres long, is mostly complete, though track-laying work is left," said the official.