No relief seems in sight for Mumbai's suffering suburban rail commuters yet, as delays in slum rehabilitation have pushed back schedules for vital expansion projects.Two critical projects, the addition of a fifth and sixth rail corridor between Kurla and Thane and a fifth rail track between Santacruz and Borivli on the Western Railway have been delayed by over a year. The ten kilometre Kurla-Thane project was earlier scheduled for completion by March 2000. ``But with the delays from the state government in handling the rehabilitation, there is no way we can meet our earlier deadlines,'' said a senior railway official. The new date has been tentatively set somewhere in mid-2001.The single cause for the delay has been the state government's delay in releasing a five-hectare plot of land near Ramabai Nagar, Ghatkopar (E). ``By the time we convince one government about the priority of this project, it is replaced by another,'' said the exasperated official. The land bearing survey number 236 was first identified, jointly inspected and then sanctioned for railway slum resettlement by the Shiv Sena-BJP government in December 1998.Joshi was replaced by Narayan Rane the following month and the process began afresh. Just when the Rane government was close to according sanction, elections were announced and the NCP-Congress government took over.Part of the Rs 4,741 crore Mumbai Urban Transportation Project-II (MUTP-II), the Rs 200 crore fifth and sixth corridor between Kurla and Thane would have enabled the railways to separate long distance and suburban trains, considerably reducing delays. The railways have so far spent a little over Rs 200 crore on this project and less than 40 per cent of it has been completed. ``It will take us a full year to complete laying of tracks after the slums have been relocated,'' an official said. ``This delay is a tremendous waste of railway resources and is causing the commuters further hardships.''Last year, the state government provided the railways with a 2.1 hectare plot at Kanjurmarg where 900 slum dwellers were rehabilitated. The understanding was that the state government would provide another plot of land to rehouse all the remaining slum dwellers, and the Ramabai Nagar plot was chosen.Meanwhile, some 515 hutments stand between progress on the laying of the fifth corridor between Santa Cruz-Borivli section. Earlier scheduled to be completed in December 2000, the deadline now has shifted into 2001. Encroachers on the Borivli-Bhayander section too have slowed down work on the larger plan for an additional pair of lines between Bhayander and Virar.MRVC proposal languishes in DelhiPolitical vacillation has claimed another victim: the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), one of the pet subjects of former Minister of State for Railways Ram Naik. The proposal for appointing a board of directors for the MRVC, without which it cannot function, continues to languish with the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) in Delhi, exactly where the file landed six months ago.The MRVC was accorded cabinet clearance by the AB Vajpayee government in January this year. Formation of the corporation was one of the stiff World Bank preconditions for the grant of the Rs 4700 crore loan for developing rail infrastructure. Delays in forming the corporation will further delay the loan, senior railway officials said.
