Churchgate to CST circular railway plan gets boost

Churchgate to CST circular railway plan gets boost

The city’s proposed circular arc railway plan to connect CST and Churchgate with rail got a probable push on Wednesday when the railways and the state government representatives came together to understand the “plan of decongesting south Mumbai using a network of elevated and underground tracks. The technical study of the master plan developed by city-based engineer Ketan Goradia has been approved by the railway board, which has asked the local railways to look into its feasibility. Earlier in April, DNA had reported how this plan, which was once approved by railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, was lost in red-tape after his removal from the post by Mamata Banerjee. Goradia has proposed an arc network to connect the Western Railway (WR) with the Central Railway (CR) to increase access to south Mumbai, apart from eventually creating two dedicated fast tracks—one running clockwise and the other anti-clockwise—between Virar and Kalyan . “After the railway board chairman in early August asked the local railways to look into the arc network plan’s feasibility, we along with urban development joint secretary Suresh Kakani met CR general manager Subodh Jain at Mumbai CST on the matter,” Goradia said. Also, Kakani confirmed that the meeting was “about understanding the plan proposed by the railways”. The arc network help commuters get from Churchgate to areas like Ballard Pier or Fort, closer to Masjid Bunder. Besides the CST-Churchgate connectivity, the plan includes a circular railway plan on the Harbour line too. Another suggestion in the master plan is to have platforms with fast and slow trains in the same direction parking on the two sides of an island platform. To cost about Rs3,000 crore, the project will augment the capacity expected out of the ambitious Rs40,000-crore elevated railways project. “While the elevated railway will take 10 years to be implemented, the arc network project can be completed within two years, thus increasing capacity from the present 70 lakh to 1.2 crore passengers a day,’’ added Goradia.