At the stroke of midnight, a historic addition to a historic line

Thane station, the destination of the country's first ever railway train, once again became a part of history, as a fresh rail corridor of two new lines - the fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Diva - was commissioned at the stroke of midnight on Monday, Tuesday.

As the final works were completed on the dot, mid-day witnessed great excitement and thrill at the Thane Route Relay Interlocking cabin in the presence of the Chairman and Managing Director of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation and top officials of the Mumbai division of Central Railway. The commissioning was done with the traditional breaking of a coconut and a pooja and two electric engines were sent in either direction to test the new rail tracks.

Workers near Kalwa railway station during the 14-hour infrastructure block in January

"The entire task was a very complex one, but it was achieved well with the co-ordination and teamwork of Central Railway and MRVC. The blocks were just when trains schedules were altered, but preparatory work had been going on continuously for everything to proceed smoothly. A long project finally coming to a satisfactory end," a jubilant Chairman and Managing Director of MRVC Ravi Agarwal said.

"The work would not have been complete without the support of commuters, co-ordination of team Mumbai division, HQ of Central Railway with MRVC teams and sheer hard work by all those who toiled to finish all the targets. We are thankful to each and every stakeholder for this," Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said.

"The lines will go down in history as a significant capacity addition to Mumbai suburban railway and an extension of the first railway alignment on the main line over a century later," MRVC Chief Public Relations Officer Sunil Udasi said.

The commissioning was done with the traditional breaking of a coconut and a pooja and two electric engines were sent in either direction to test the new rail tracks

Earlier in the day, Commissioner of Railway Safety Manoj Arora inspected the new lines for safety giving a few guidelines on implementation. The work of cut and connection of lines on this section was carried out by operating various blocks. There were major blocks of 18 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, 14 hours and finally 72 hours to complete the work.

Future plans

Now that the project has been done and dusted, what next? As the new Diva-Thane lines start working from today after a 14-year struggle, the Central Railway is planning to add new air-conditioned train services to the new corridor in addition to regular services.

"We are planning to introduce a number of air-conditioned services on the paths created by the new corridor and also add a few non-AC trains, the details of which are being planned. However, there are no plans to make changes in any halt patterns and no halts have been planned at the new Kalwa and Mumbra stations as yet. The new platforms will be used during the regular mega blocks when the slow corridor is closed," a senior divisional official said. Initially there could be train delays as train speeds are gradually increased after ensuring consolidation of new track/new formation.

Timeline of 14 years

>> 2008: Thane-Diva 5th and 6th line was sanctioned under MUTP II with equal cost sharing between the Ministry of Railways and the government of Maharashtra
>> 2012: Survey to identify hutments along the stretch, demolitions begin
>> 2013: Thane politician stops work on project claiming names of hutment dwellers changed
>> 2015: New hutments encroached on the proposed stretch, again removed
>> 2018: Tunnel alignment found to be flawed at the last minute, necessitating a new rail overbridge, which led to further delays
>> 2022: Project complete

2008
Year when the Thane-Diva 5th and 6th line were sanctioned