26 October,2017 05:36 PM IST | Mumbai | Rajendra B Aklekar
Long waits and heavy crowds will soon be a thing of the past, with Central Railway building a separate elevated station complex for Harbour trains; old tracks will be used for outstation trains
Always at the bottom of the railways priorities, the Harbour line is finally getting bumped up to the top, with a brand new elevated station complex at Kurla. The massive Rs 125- crore project is already under construction, and once complete, Harbour line commuters will never again be delayed by passenger or freight trains.
Work is already on to construct an elevated station and tracks for the Harbour line at Kurla
Currently, Harbour trains ply at platforms 7 and 8 at Kurla station. But every time a freight train is passing through, Harbour locals are put on hold, since they share the same tracks. This means that Harbour commuters have to deal with frequent delays and huge crowds at the platforms. But this will soon be a thing of the past, as Central Railway has already begun construction of the elevated station complex for the Harbour line at Kurla.
Illustration/Ravi Jadhav
"The new station complex will solve the perennial complaint of crowding on the existing harbour line platforms 7 and 8 once and for all," said Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer for CR.
Steady pace of work
Work is on to build a ramp starting near the Kasaiwada foot overbridge (FOB) and going all the way till the point where the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) intersects the tracks near Tilak Nagar station. The length of this elevated corridor will be 1,120 m or 1.1 km, and it will feature three platforms, a central skywalk connecting to all other FOBs and a mezzanine floor with 3,450 sqm of shops, food stalls and passenger utilities.
Work is already at an advanced stage, with 117 of the total 606 piles in progress. The foundation is ready, and if the current pace continues, the project should be complete in three years, said a top railway official.
Helps freight traffic
This move comes just in time, as statistics and surveys reveal that the Harbour line is growing at a rapid pace and its traffic will only go up in the near future. The goods train traffic cannot be compromised either, and the elevated station will ensure that both run properly. Meanwhile, the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) is also building a third line between Wadala and Kurla that will increase freight traffic.
Outstation trains benefit too
Another benefit of this decision is that platforms 7 and 8 - from where the harbour line is operating - can in the future be used exclusively for long-distance trains. This will serve as the fifth and sixth lines between Kurla and CST for outstation trains.
The fifth and sixth lines (from Kalyan to CST) is an ambitious project of the Railways, which seeks to separate suburban traffic from outstation traffic. The fifth and sixth lines between Diva-Kalyan and Kurla-Thane have already been commissioned, and work on the Thane-Diva section is in progress. Once these sections are ready, commuters will benefit from four dedicated suburban railway tracks between Kurla and Kalyan. This will enable CR to not only increase the frequency of trains, but also run them more efficiently.
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