Railways to expand Mumbai suburban services

NEW DELHI: Railways plans to invest Rs50 billion over 2007-2012 to expand the overcrowded Mumbai suburban rail services, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said on Monday.

The investment is part of a plan to expand capacity by 56 per cent in two phases. Yadav said in parliament, while presenting the Rail Budget for 2007-08, that efforts would be made to complete both phases by 2012.

"Suburban services are the lifeline of our nation's commercial capital, Mumbai," Yadav said.

"To ease the overcrowding of Mumbai's trains, enhancement in capacity of these services will have to be undertaken."

An estimated 6 million people, more than a third of the city's population, crowd Mumbai's suburban trains everyday commuting from far flung suburbs to their jobs in the city.

Under the first phase, the railways is adding tracks and more rakes to existing trains to expand service.

The second phase would be undertaken jointly by the Railways, the state government of Maharashtra and multi lateral funding agencies, he said.