Raised rail-road corridor soon

Suresh Prabhu (right), Devendra Fadnavis and Sajjan Jindal, CMD, JSW Group, during the signing of MoU between MRVC Ltd and railways on Sunday (Photo: Debasish Dey)

Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday announced that the Mumbai Urban Transport Project Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) III would in addition look into the feasibility of having an elevated road parallel to elevated railway corridor in the city. Mr Prabhu was speaking at the signing of SPV between the state and the railways for the same.

Mr Prabhu said that although it was not in the original plan for MUTP III, a joint report between Mumbai’s railway-project executing body Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) and the city’s planning body, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), will be made to work out the feasibility of the project, “I have spoken with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and we both have talked to the officials of the bodies involved. They have agreed to bring out the feasibility report in two to three months,” he said.

The SPV to fast track the projects was signed by Central Railway (CR) manager Sunil Kumar Sood and transport secretary Gautam Chatterjee in the presence of chief minister Devandra Fadnavis, Suresh Prabhu, transport minister Diwakar Raote and Mumbai’s guardian minister Subhash Desai.

Agreeing for better co-ordination between the state and the railways, Mr Fadnavis said that it was time the lack of attention to Mumbai railways is not repeated. “I think the MOU and SPV has come at the right time since the works of MUTP II are almost getting wrapped up. It is important not to let there be too much gap between between the two phases,” said Mr Fadnavis.

MUTP III also includes procurement of 47 new rakes, Kalwa’s connectivity with Harbour’s Navi Mumbai stations, and the quadrupling of tracks between Virar and Dahanu.