MRVC’s Vasai-Panvel corridor plan inflated, needs to be reworked: Central Railway

The proposed Vasai-Panvel corridor, planned by the MRVC, envisages construction of 11 new stations, a chord line between Nilje and Kopar and an upgraded signalling system to operate suburban services on the corridor at a cost of Rs 997.83 crore. The corporation was planning to make the section capable of running suburban trains with a headway of 3.5 minutes. Of the 170 suburban trains, 10 per cent would run during the peak hours, according to the proposed plan.

Currently used for goods services, the corridor is connected to railway JNPT port from Panvel, where goods are loaded. The plan has severe constraints as it does not look into the saturation at both Panvel and Vasai Road terminus that are running at full capacity, CR officials said.

CR itself is constructing a coaching complex to de-congest the Panvel terminus, but its existing capacity constraints, CR officials claimed, have not been considered by MRVC.

The section, when equipped with automatic signalling system, will need to have their track lengths determined according to the length of a goods trains that will come up to about 800 metres for the trains to run smoothly.
A CR official said, “The trains will line up one after the other with no space at the terminus station affecting not only the suburban, but also the goods operations. The proposed services are beyond the capacity of the tracks.”

The land acquisition required for the project will also be a big constraint, CR officials said, as the neighbouring 6.4 hectares is private land. “The car shed is likely to be constructed at Bhiwandi, which looks bleak,” the official added. The suburban services can only be operated on the corridor once the goods trains are completely shifted to the under-construction Dedicated Freight Corridor, the official said.

The proposal to run additional suburban services on Vasai-Panvel was prepared after MRVC’s earlier plan to construct two additional lines along the route of suburban train was cancelled and the corporation told to add addition services in the existing corridor. Chief PRO of CR, Shivaji Suttar said, “We have received the detailed project report and are reviewing it. There are some constraints with land acquisition and the proposed services based on which a suitable reply will be sent.”