Civil work done, Thane-Diva rail project nears completion

All civil work on the most delayed ThaneDiva rail project is complete and the line is expected to be finally commissioned before March 2022 said railway officials on Friday in what could bring cheer to thousands of residents of the area The next big task is to link rail tracks on both sides for which the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation will need to coordinate with the Central Railway they saidThe completion of this 9km corridor marred first due to encroachments and later technical glitches will see a seachange in CRrsquos rail traffic and lead not only an increase in suburban trains but also segregate the outstation trains between Kalyan and Kurla The fast local trains will then get a dedicated path Currently there are six lines between Kalyan and Diva and Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Thane But there are only four lines between Thane and Diva which leads to congestion due to crossing of outstation trainsldquoThe pandemic was a difficult time with supply chains delayed and most of the labour going back home Most of the civil work on the ThaneDiva line is now complete and the process of linking rail tracks will soon beginrdquo an official said The MRVC is spearheading the project ldquoOnce the track linking is done then the trials of the commissioner of railway safety will happen and once the certifications are in the line would be commissioned We are looking for an internal deadline of December 2021rdquo he saidThe line has missed several deadlines and seen cost escalationHowever a section of officials said that it may not be practically possible to stick to the December deadline as track linking and interlocking is a complicated process and that one should look at March 2022 in the least In 2019 the Central Railways new local timetable had no space for more trains in the future CR said there were no paths available for trains as the section was housefulThe project will help the Central Railway add nearly 100 more local services as DivaThane is the busiest corridor at present ldquoThe commissioning of the corridor will bring in a fundamental change to the Mumbai division and help in increase of services and better punctualityrdquo Central Railwayrsquos chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar saidCommuters upbeatKalwa resident and commuter activist Siddhesh Desai said ldquoOnce complete Kalwa station will be a better place to get in Because of just two lines the frequency of trains had become a major issue and crowds swelled in just a few minutes as the population of Kalwa has been increasing after spilling over from Thanerdquo He added ldquoThis along with the KalwaAiroli link whenever it completes will make Kalwa a much better junction station and be of immense help to commuters We have been waiting for this dayrdquoA stretch of the muchdelayed ThaneDiva sixth line being developed FileSameer MarkandePassenger activist Madhu Kotian said the project will add Kalwa and Mumbra on the fast corridor He said ldquoDue to the huge population the crowd at these two stations is huge but is being catered to by just slow trains This project will increase services and trains leading to thinning of crowds This should have happened much much earlierrdquoCommuter activist Lata Argade who had taken a signature campaign at Dombivli station a few years ago to push for the completion of ThaneDiva rail said ldquoPassengers had responded overwhelmingly in the campaign on the station premise of Dombivli as most agreed with the demands and wanted the railways to fulfil them as time progressed One of the sevenpoint demands included completion of the ThaneDiva railway line which will prove to be beneficial to all commuters beyond Thane in a very big wayrdquoA local train at Dadar station The project will help Central Railway segregate local and outstation lines and improve servicesSubhash Gupta of Mumbai Railway Pravasi Sangh said if it takes so much time to finish a 9km stretch one can imagine the plight of other similar corridors in the cityldquoI will believe only when they complete the line and get it commissioned But actually if they complete it It will change the lives of people staying between Thane and Diva It will lead to more trains and improved frequency will indeed immensely help commuters in this region It is a struggle for everyone beyond Thane to catch a train right now and this will bring in a mega shift in transport patterns around hererdquo local commuter and activist Nankumar Deshmukh saidThe deadline for the project sanctioned in 2008 was December 2015 which was revised to December 2017 then to March 2019 June 2020 and now March 2022 The cost has escalated from about Rs 130 crore to Rs 440 croreCommuters at Thane station As the number of services will increase due to the project there will be less crowding at the stationGhatkopar station upgrade after rainThe work on the Ghatkopar railway station upgrade that midday had been following up will now be taken up after October said a top official Ghatkopar has been an important junction since it sees a huge footfall due to the integration of the local and Metro lines The station is set to get a massive upgrade with three new 12metre foot bridges all linked by an elevated deck an additional skywalk along a road and seamless connectivity for passenger movement2008Year project was sanctioned