Civil engineer's plan to increase suburban train capacity gets approved

A civil engineer who has for years been trying to get his plan to ease Mumbais commuters woes approved by the railways has finally hit bullseye He met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday with the plan that involves an arc railway and was assured that it would now be evaluated and considered if found practicalKetan Goradia has been trying to get his meticulous plan ndash which estimates the cost of the entire project at R20000 crore ndash approved from the railways since 2012 from the time of Railway Ministers Dinesh Trivedi and Mamata Banerjee I met Sharad Pawar and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal who has now asked for my project to be evaluated by the Transformation Cell of the Indian Railways This will be a big help for the city an excited Goradia told middayGoradia said that he met Pawar along with a delegation of Mumbai Railway passengers following regular disruptions on Central Railway recently Pawar and Goyal gave a patient hearing to them and then after studying his plan Goyal asked his deputies to take it ahead Asked about the plans relevance now he said The Metro will be too costly for 75 of rail commuters It will take cars off the road But with my plan the passenger carrying capacity of Western Central and Harbour lines can be increased by 300 to 400 per cent without huge infrastructural changes or financial outlayArc railway to helpThe plan also syncs with the newlyplanned Metro routes and Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporations proposed rail lines he said The plan involves an arc railway It will create a highspeed high efficiency railmetro network and multiple nodes around existing stations with last mile electric vehicle connectivity Goradia explained The five key solutions as per his plan include a Currey RoadLower Parel loop tunnel a Matunga RoadMatunga Road loop cabbased in trains not on poles signalling with advanced technology a CSMT Churchgate loop tunnel along with a harbour line separation bridge and an OvalUranPanvel arc with a CSMTDivaTalojaPanvel lineThe CSMTChurchgate arc line will have three stations CSMT Underground under platform no 78 Oval Station UG under Madam Cama Road and Churchgate Underground under Maharshi Karve Marg to ease passenger traffic The project will allow 800sq km additional area to be connected to Mumbai Goradia saidPlan being studiedRailway officials said that the minister has asked the Transformation Cell of Indian Railways to look into the viability of the project Officials have already started work on the plan and said that they have asked officials from Mumbai railway to study it in detail as to how it is placed visavis the Metros and other new proposed railway lines and give them a realtime assessment of it so that a decision on this could be expeditedBut not everyone feels the plan will work Former railway board member engineering and general manager Central Railway Subodh Jain said Goradias Mumbai suburban plan requires connecting Churchgate to CSMT via an underground line running beneath important heritage buildings This will involve a confrontation with many selfstyled NGOs No bureaucrat or even politician will venture in this Also with Mumbai Metro line 3 the relevance of the plan is diluted to some extent800kmAdditional area that will be connected to city in the planWill loops ease commuter issuesGoradias plan involves the railways running in loops at strategic points It involves connecting the Central and Western Railways and will have connections to the mainland of India between Fort and UranRewas for the new airport etc so that the railway is seamlessThe Harbour line The harbour line will be modified after Reay Road from where the upper deck of a double deck bridge will start From Dockyard road station trains will be diverted over P DMello road providing stations for Sandhurst Road Masjid It will then enter CSMT precinct where an elevated platform will be providedThe Western and Central lines A circular network will be created by building two tunnels from the option of three alignments connecting the Western Railway to the Central Railway Two tracks of a six track redesigned Central Main Line will be taken underground by a tunnel starting just before Matunga station which will be connected to Matunga Road station on the Western lineOvalUranNew airportPanvelKarjat line This line will use the OvalUran section and then a quadrupled track of KarjatPanvel Nhava Sheva section using the existing Karjat PanvelNhava Sheva line alignment which passes near the Navi Mumbai International Airport and further connect to KarjatCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates