Railways asked to decide on corridors

Mumbai: Commuters might get either the Andheri-Borivali corridor on Harbour or the elevated corridor from Churchgate to Virar, said city railways officials.

Officials have asked the railway board that since there is no progress on the elevated corridor, it would be more helpful for commuters to get access up to Borivali on the Harbour line. The changes of the corridor ever seeing the light of day has reduced after the announcement of the Metro line along the same route.

Currently, trains on the Harbour-Western route run from Panvel to Andheri, CST-Andheri/Bandra. Officials feel that the extension to Borivali will help in decongesting the Western Railways (WR) Churchgate-Andheri/Borivili section.

Officials from the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) have asked the Railway Board to make up its mind about the fate of the Churchgate-Virar elevated corridor and have told them that if the project is dropped, they can start work on the Andheri-Borivali corridor.

An official said, “We have basically asked the railway board to tell us that if its not in a position to proceed with the elevated corridor because of the Metro, we will start the work towards Borivali, which sees peak hour footfall of nearly seven-lakh.”

The issue has been taken up with Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu himself. The official further added, “The Metro from DN Nagar to Dahisar will lead to the death of our elevated project and everyone knows this. Even the project has been curtailed from Bandra to Virar instead of the original Churchgate to Virar. The fact remains that one operational Metro will automatically take away paying customers from us.”

The railways have also planned to change the current fleet of trains from normal trains to air-conditioned trains in the next three years, in order to compete with the different Metro trains planned throughout the city.