Rail board gets proposal for double deck line

A brand new proposal for fusing the current harbour line and CST-Panvel elevated corridor, such that the two run one below the other between Dockyard and CST via Mansion Road, has been submitted to the Railway Board in Delhi jointly by Central Railway (CR) and Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC).

The double-decker corridor, as it has been dubbed, will give CST-Panvel elevated corridor the same alignment as the one-year-old proposal for diverting current harbour line from Dockyard to CST via Mansion Road up to P. D’Mello Road with the former running on top and harbour running below.

The proposal has been put forth as CR, for the longest time, has wanted to create a fifth and sixth line exclusively for Mail Express trains between Kurla and CST but has been unsuccessful owing to unavailability of land on the mainline. Railway officials have wanted to use the section between Dockyard and CST to improve overall punctuality of trains. “By clubbing the new harbour line alignment and CST-Panvel elevated corridor, we are hoping that the Railway Board will see sense in it.

Both projects have a 50:50 partnership between the railway and the state and so, it was considered only logical that they be clubbed together. We have said that the elevated portion of the double-decker line will be the elevated corridor beneath which CR will run its harbour line,” said an official on condition of anonymity.

If the Railway Board accepts the proposal, it will be a huge step. However, it is yet to be determined whether the cost will be absorbed within the Rs 15,000 crore currently estimated for CST-Panvel corridor.