Railway 'dumps’ metro from Mumbai corridor plan

The railway ministry has goofed up while preparing the final dossier on the 62.26km Oval Maidan-Churchgate-Virar elevated railway corridor project worth Rs21,000 crore.

The Mumbai Metro rail that would intersect the Western Railway at Andheri as part of the project finds no mention in the “project information memorandum” issued on Wednesday. The matter had been extensively discussed at the local level and engineering solutions worked out, but the ministry did not mention any of these in the memorandum that explains the nitty-gritty through maps, engineering and route details, locations of stations and train timetable.

The ministry came up with the plan for a two-track elevated corridor above the existing Churchgate-Virar lines because additional tracks cannot be laid to increase the capacity of the Mumbai suburban railway. Air-conditioned trains will run on the proposed corridor that will also have underground stretches. It will terminate near Nariman Point at Oval Maidan.

The metro will run almost at the same height as that of the corridor. A source said there are plans to have the corridor above the metro route at Andheri. “But there is not a single mention of it,” he said.

Local railway officials were surprised at the omission but said a correction would have to be issued. Ranjan K Jain, the infrastructure advisor handling the project, could not be reached as he was in a meeting. Western Railway officials refused to come on record but said the matter would be looked into.