Mumbai to get 301.5 km of new rail lines in 5 years: Vaishnaw

Mumbai: With assembly elections in Maharashtra around the corner, union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday announced that Mumbai’s suburban railway network will get an additional 301.5 km of rail lines over the next five years, at a cost of ₹16,240 crore.
“This will enable us to add 300 new local train services in the future,” said Vaishnaw, who travelled from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Bhandup in a local train on Friday. Before boarding the train, Vaishnaw also took stock of the CSMT redevelopment, which is proceeding slowly. Sources said the minister asked for details on the shifting of existing buildings and infrastructure, and designs of how it would look after completion.
According to senior rail officials, work is being carried out in phases on at least four rail line projects, with a deadline of December 2025. These include the 10-km-long fifth and sixth lines between Parel and Kurla, the new suburban corridor on the Panvel-Karjat route, the third and fourth lines on the Kalyan-Badlapur corridor, and a third line from Kalyan to Kasara. The sixth line on the Goregaon-Borivali corridor has a March 2025 deadline.
However, railway passenger associations questioned the feasibility of some of the project deadlines. “There are project-affected people that need to be shifted for the Parel-Kurla line. The work of demolishing the Sion railway overbridge has just begun, and no work has begun for the revamp of Parel [station] into a terminus. How are the Railways then claiming that they will get 5-6 lines on the Kurla-Parel route by December 2025? It all seems too optimistic,” said Subhash Gupta, president, Yatri Rail Parishad.
Railway officials admitted that the construction of the fifth and sixth lines from Parel to Kurla would take time. The addition of two new rail lines on the Goregaon-Borivali section of the Harbour line, and the fifth and sixth lines from Borivali to Virar are expected to be ready by 2027. The third and fourth lines for the Virar-Dahanu corridor are targeted for December 2026, officials added.
The new suburban rail corridor on the Panvel-Karjat route is, however, expected to be ready by December 2025. Work on tunnelling, earthwork and bridges is underway on this 30-km-long corridor connecting Navi Mumbai and Raigad districts in MMR.
Moreover, in a bid to segregate suburban and non-suburban trains beyond Kalyan, the railways are constructing a fourth line for the Kalyan-Asangaon corridor, for which land acquisition is going on. Likewise, utility shifting, earthwork, and bridges are under construction for the third and fourth lines on the Kalyan-Badlapur corridor.
However, the Airoli-Kalwa elevated line, which is another new rail corridor, continues to remain stranded, with the Railways still to rehabilitate over 750 tenements. Rail officials said it will take 30 months after land acquisition and shifting of the project-affected persons.