Rail, Niti Aayog friction stall MUTP III

The file of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project III (MUTP III), which could bring major relief to Mumbaikars, has been in suspended animation for more than half a year due to disagreements between the Niti Aayog and railway officials. This, in spite of Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu promising that the MUTP III would be cleared soon.

MUTP III includes important projects like the Airoli-Kalwa link, which will connect Kalyan to Navi Mumbai, and the doubling of the Panvel-Karjat stretch to name a few. “The file was sent to the Niti Aayog after which it was sent to the Railway Board in January this year. The file was then sent back to the think tank for approval after corrections were made in April, but it has not made its way back to the board since then,” said a railway official on the condition of anonymity.

The Rs 15,000-crore project will help take the load off conventional routes like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Kalyan and Churchgate-Virar, and it will result in more services being added on these conventional sections via the Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) system on the Central Railway (CR) mainline and Harbour line and Western Railway (WR). “It will be a huge help to many people who avail of diesel electric multiple unit (DEMU) services on the Panvel-Karjat corridor, as they won’t have to do so after the MUTP III is implemented. Also, major relief will be seen on the Airoli-Kalwa link, which will not require everyone who lives beyond Thane to travel there and catch a train to Panvel, as they will be able to board the train at Kalyan itself,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

The Asian Age had written about Niti Aayog asking Railways to include the CBTC in the MUTP III and explain how it would be able to repay almost 70 per cent of the loan taken from the World Bank. This because the Railways has always maintained that Mumbai suburban is one of the heaviest losses-making sections it runs.

The Railways, on its part, had said that it had taken a long-term loan from the World Bank — up to the year 2038 —ensuring that the returns from revenue as well as its own available funds would make the project financially viable. “We still have not crossed the hurdle of the actual sanctioning of the project, so it’s really a wonder how quickly we will be able to get the project up and off the ground. Let’s not forget that the CST-Panvel and Churchgate-Virar elevated corridors have not even reached the sanction stage,” the official said.