Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, in the Rail Budget 2016-17, unveiled measures to beef up suburban networks in the country.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, in the Rail Budget 2016-17, unveiled measures to beef up suburban networks in the country.
Besides proposing two additional elevated rail corridors in Mumbai to be linked with existing suburban network and the newly-launched Mumbai Metro, Mr Prabhu proposed taking up similar projects in Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram with the cooperation of the state governments.
He proposed enhancing the Ring Rail facility in Delhi, which has about 21 stations, to give a helping hand to decongest the roads of the national capital.
Mr Prabhu, in his Budget speech, said that two new corridors for Mumbai suburban train — Churchgate-Virar and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal-Panvel — have been planned.
“The two corridors will be elevated and will greatly help in reducing the congestion of the suburban trains. The CSTM-Panvel corridor will be integrated with Metro lines for connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport. Besides, all low-level platforms in Mumbai suburban stations in the ensuing financial year will be raised to address safety concerns,” said the railway minister.
The minister also informed the Lok Sabha that he has suggested to the Maharashtra government to introduce staggered office timing to lessen pressure on the Mumbai suburban network.
The minister also said that ongoing Metro works in Kolkata of around 100 km, when completed, would quadruple the installed capacity.
He said that Phase I of the East-West corridor of the Kolkata Metro would be completed by June 2018.
For the purpose of cooperation with state governments, Mr Prabhu said that a new investment framework would come up in which railways would share equity contribution with the state governments to ensure cost neutrality on operations.
He also proposed to develop suburban systems of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai by deploying innovative financing mechanisms.
He said that Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram warrant a comprehensive suburban system.
