HC seeks details of busiest corridor

A  day after commuters brought trains to a halt at Borivili, the Bombay high court on Thursday sought details pertaining to the number of trains plying in the Andheri-Virar corridor.

In a petition filed in 1995, the Mumbai Suburban Railway Passengers Association (MSRPA) had sought a court directive to the Western Railway to revise their cyclic timetable.

The MSRPA's representative Deepak Gandhi told the court that there was no need for additional rakes or tracks, but more super fast trains and Bandra-Virar trains were needed.  "More than 80% of the population lives between Bandra and Virar, but a greater number of trains  ply between Churchgate and Bandra."

When the judges — chief justice Swatanter Kumar and justice DY Chandrachud — asked the WR counsel which was the most crowded corridor, advocate Suresh Kumar answered it was the 39-km Andheri-Virar stretch. He also said 1,196 services are run every day on the Western line.

However, Gandhi said that it was possible to run 1,400 services a day. "Superfast trains should be from Mumbai Central to Dahisar and Goregaon."

"It may be possible to create more shuttle trains in some pockets. You should examine this," Kumar told the WR counsel.