Last hurdle for Uran local trains finally cleared

The 12-km stretch till Kharkopar station is ready

Maharashtra's most delayed project, the CSMT-Uran railway line, cleared the final environmental hurdle of forest land handover on Saturday. The Railways have now got the "all green" to proceed with the engineering work.

mid-day had highlighted in February 2021 how the Belapur-Seawoods Uran suburban railway project, being implemented jointly by Central Railway and the City Industrial Development Corporation Limited (CIDCO), had been categorised as the most delayed railway project in Maharashtra with a time run-over of 216 months, which is 18 years," as per the union government's infrastructure and project monitoring division of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

A 27-km long stretch

Of the 27-km stretch, about 12-km stretch till Kharkopar is ready and operational with suburban trains. The remaining 15-km stretch work is part of phase 2 till Uran. The clearance received on Saturday means that all permissions are now in, and the railways can proceed with the work.

"The last regulatory hurdle in phase two of the project has been resolved. The union Ministry of Environment and Forests has given working permission. Now, the Railways can go full steam ahead with the work. Indeed, thanks to all those who helped us expedite this," said Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, CIDCO vice chairman and managing director.

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The line to Uran will be Central Railway's fourth corridor on the Mumbai suburban railway and will facilitate Mumbai CSMT-Uran local trains, also offering connectivity to the proposed Navi Mumbai airport and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, one of the country's largest shipping ports.

Last week, the Central Railway formally announced the linking of the Uran railway line to the Mumbai suburban network after completion of launching two 61-metre open web girders on the ongoing Nerul-Belapur-Uran project between Jasai and JNPT. However, the stretch at Uran end required diversion of forest land for construction, which has now been allowed.

The date of approval of the project was March 1996 with an original deadline of March 2004 and original project cost of Rs 495.44 crore. The project cost has risen to Rs 2,980.41 crore of which Rs 1768.25 crore has been the expenditure so far.

One-third cost of the project is borne by Railways and two third cost by CIDCO at 67:33. The new line connects the existing harbour line at two points. One arm goes to Nerul and the other to Belapur.

Time saver

Once the line is ready, it should be able to take commuters from CSMT on an average of one hour 45 minutes. The existing freight line to Uran is about 95.10 km from Mumbai CSMT and the new line will pass through a shorter route and cut the distance by nearly half.

‘Figuratively' speaking
Total Length: 26.7 km
Phase-I from Nerul/ Belapur to Kharkopar:
12.4 km (complete)
Phase-II from Kharkopar to Uran: 14.3 km (under works)