Railways pulls out of Bandra-Kurla Complex rail corridor

The Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) will not get a suburban railway corridor as planned earlier. The corridor, initially proposed in the original draft of the third phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, has been dropped from the final approved draft as the BKC will be getting corridors of the Metro Railway and the Monorail.

“A suburban railway corridor to connect Bandra and Kurla had been originally proposed in the third phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project that was first drafted a few years ago. But it has been dropped from the plan as BKC will be criss-crossed by corridors of the Metro and Monorails and a suburban railway will be overlapping the need,’’  a senior MRVC official said.

“BKC will not be able to spare additional land for a railway corridor and it will be an unnecessary duplication of works,’’ he added.

The board of directors of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation had in early December approved the concept plan of the third phase of the Rs 52,000 crore World Bank-funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project.

The concept plan included eight of new railway corridors, additional trains and focus on the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Top on the priority list is the suburban section are the Virar-Vasai Road-Diva-Panvel section, the fast corridor on the Harbour line between CST for better connectivity to the proposed new international airport in Navi Mumbai.

Eight important new corridors will be implemented in phases by 2031.