Devendra Fadnavis and Piyush Goyal Inaugurates Mumbai Suburban’s 4th Corridor

PUNE : Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Railways & Coal, Govt. of India, inaugurated and dedicated Mumbai suburban’s fourth corridor ‘Nerul – Seawoods Darave/Belapur-Kharkopar ( Phase I) New Line’, ‘Panvel – Pen’ electrification work, Flagged off EMU services on Belapur/Nerul – Kharkopar section and MEMU services on Vasai Road –Diva-Panvel-Pen (through video link), laid foundation stone for Umbermali and Thansit (two new suburban stations on Kalyan-Kasara line) and dedicated various other passenger amenities on Suburban section of Mumbai Division of Central Railway on 11.11.2018 at a colorful function attended by large number of people at Kharkopar Railway Station, Navi Mumbai.

Anant Geete, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt of India, Ramdas B. Athawale, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt of India, Vinod Tawde, Minister for Education, Maharashtra, Ravindra Chawan, Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies, Maharashtra and Guardian Minister Raigad District, Arvind Sawant, Rajan Vichare, Shrirang Barne, MPs, Jayawant Sutar, Hon’ble Mayor Navi Mumbai, Smt Kavita Choutmal, Mayor, Panvel, Prashant Thakur, Chairman, CIDCO and Hon’ble MLA, Manohar Bhoir, Sandeep Naik, Ravi Patil, Balram Patil, Manda Mhatre, MLCs/MLAs were present as Guests of Honour on the occasion.

Kapil Patil, MP and Bandurang Barora, MLA were present at Umbermali, while a large number of people were present at Pen railway station.

D. K. Sharma, General Manager, Central Railway, welcomed the gathering and informed about the passenger amenities being inaugurated .

Lokesh Chandra, Managing Director, CIDCO spoke about the development done by CIDCO. S.K. Tiwari, Chief Administrative Officer (Construction), Central Railway gave vote of thanks.

Ramdas Athavale Minister of State for Social Justice, appreciated that the government has a policy of giving justice to project affected people while doing development works.

Anant Geete, Minister for Heavy Industries said that Kharkopar will be the center for development due to all the connectivity. He said that the railways provided the cheapest, safest and fast travel facilities as ‘Maha Mumbai’ was being developed. He thanked the Chief Minister, Minister of Railways & Coal and the Railways for the developmental work.

Piyush Goyal while addressing the gathering said that the Pen-Panvel electrification work has been completed 9 months before schedule of July 2019. He congratulated the Central Railway and CIDCO officials for working in tandem to complete the Nerul/Belapur-Kharkopar (Phase 1) of Nerul/Belapur-Uran line thereby connecting the Kharkopar area to Mumbai City. He also said that it is expected to completely electrify the remaining section of Central Railway in a year’s time.

Devendra Fadnavis, in his address said the Mobility in Transport is the important factor in projects. He thanked the Minister of Railways for allotting funds in the budget for Maharashtra more than double in comparison to previous years. He also mentioned about the various works done by Railways in Maharashtra in last few years with tremendous speed.

Background Material

Nerul / Belapur – Uran Railway project was envisaged to accelerate the growth of Navi Mumbai by providing direct access between Uran town, JNPT and newly developed area of Mumbai Metropolitan region as well as Greater Mumbai. The cost of project is being shared by Railways and CIDCO in the ratio of 33:67 %.The stretch from Nerul to Kharkopar and Belapur to Kile Jn. have been completed.

Salient features:

Total Length: 26.7 Kms

Phase-I from Nerul/ Belapur to Kharkopar: 12.4 km (double line)

Phase-II from Kharkopar to Uran: 14.3 km (double line)

Total Cost of Project : Rs.1,782 Crore

Inaugural suburban services between Nerul/Belapur and Kharkopar stations are being opened for passenger traffic on 11.11.2018 (Sunday) and the regular services will commence from 12.11.2018 (Monday). The new Electrified BG double line suburban corridor starts from Nerul (PF 4/5) to Kharkopar. Other line starts from Belapur (PF 4) and joins on Nerul-Kharkopar line at Kile cabin.

Total 40 services will be run between Kharkopar and Nerul/Belapur stations w.e.f.12.11.2018. 10 pair of services will run between Nerul and Kharkopar stations and 10 pair of services between Belapur and Kharkopar stations.

Railway Electrification of Panvel– Pen section consisting of 35 Route Kilometer/74 Track Kilometer was sanctioned as a part of the Panvel-Pen-Thal section of the Mumbai Division, Central Railway.

The project has been completed with erection of more than 2000 OHE masts & 100 OHE portals/Booms with 23 special structure arrangements on 10 bridges and a tunnel.

Railway Electrification Mission 2022 was launched for cent percent Electrification of Indian Railway network from present level of 46 percent, to provide a pollution free, energy efficient and economical Rail transport. The newly electrified Panvel – Pen double line section (35 Route Kilometers) is a Gateway to connect Western ghat and Konkan Railway network and is a part of the only leftover non-electrified Panvel-Pen-Roha (75 Route Kilometer) main line section of Mumbai Division, Central Railway.

With completion of the Panvel-Pen Railway Electrification project, electric commuter train services, popularly called as MEMU are being introduced for the public residing in Raigarh and Alibaug District to connect them to Mumbai Metropolitan City and will usher a new era of prosperity and development to this area.

The work on the project commenced from Sept’2017 and completed in Oct’2018. With sustained monitoring of all project activities like supply of men, material and machinery with planned traffic blocks, etc., the project was completed without cost overrun and 9 months before the target date of July 2019.

Total 8 MEMU services will be run between Vasai Road-Diva-Panvel-Pen w.e.f 12.11.2018.

Dedication of Passenger Amenity items i.e. Lifts, Escalators, FOBs, etc.

New Platform at Parel station. Parel area is famous for medical facilities to patients coming from all over India. Famous hospitals are – TATA memorial Hospital (for Cancer treatment), KEM hospital, Wadia Hospital (for Children), Global hospital, MGM hospital, Haffkine Institute, Veterinary hospital etc. Parel area has rapidly transitioned from a primarily mill area to one of the most upmarket office and residential destinations in the city. To manage the substantially increased number of passengers in Parel station, a separate new platform has been provided for Down line slow trains (towards Kalyan). Thus, congestion at platform has been significantly reduced.

6 Foot Over Bridges i.e. at Sewri, Mumbra, Bhandup, Parel, Kalva and Ghatkopar. Since 2014, total 64 FOBs have been constructed and work is in progress for 40 more FOBs on Central Railway.

Raising of Platform height to 900 mm at all 273 platforms of suburban stations.

41 escalators at 23 stations viz. Lonavala (02), Nahur (01), Currey Road (01), Thane (02), Ghatkopar (02), Kalva (01), Byculla (02), Mulund (01), Matunga (01), Sewri (01), Ambernath (01), Kalyan (02), Vadala Road (03), Asangaon (03), Kasara (01), Mankhurd (02), Shahad (01), Dadar (02), Chembur (02), Karjat (01), Diva (01), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (02), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (06). Since 2014, total 71 Escalators are provided and work is in progress for 44 on Central Railway.

10 lifts at 6 stations viz. Thane -2, Tilak Nagar – 2, Vadala Road -3, Chembur 1, Dombivli -1 and Kalyan -1. Since 2014, total 55 Lifts are provided and work is in progress for 16 on Central Railway.

New Toilets at 6 stations viz. Sandhurst Road, Vidyavihar, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Kalwa, Atgaon.

318 new ATVMs at all 77 suburban stations.

· IP based suburban train indicators at 10 stations viz. Dombivali,, Vithalwadi, Shahad, Ambarnath, Ambivali, Badlapur, Titwala, Shelu, Kasara and Bhivpuri Road.

· 206 additional CCTV cameras at 6 stations viz. CSMT, Dadar, LTT, Kurla, Thane, Kalyan.

· 2 Booking Offices at Bhiwandi Road and Navde Road stations.

· 1 Megawatt Solar Power plant at Sanpada EMU Carshed has been commissioned at Sanpada EMU Car shed. So far, solar power plants of 1.934 Megawatt have been provided in last 4 years on Central Railway

Foundation Stone Laying of New Suburban stations at Umbermali and Thansit on Kalyan-Kasara section. This will provide connectivity and access to Mumbai suburban network for a large number of villagers around these proposed stations.