Let’s meet, sort out issues, complete Uran train line: MoS Railways Raosaheb Danve Patil

Work in progress for the Belapur-Seawoods Uran suburban railway project

With payment of only Rs 36 crore pending from the Maharashtra government for the Mumbai CSMT-Uran local train project, a key city project, the Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve Patil on Tuesday appealed to the state to have a joint meeting with the railways to sort out the issue. Railway officials said they would not allow the project to get delayed as it was in its final stages.

Work on the project, which would be key to the Navi Mumbai airport connectivity, has been fast-tracked with just a small stretch remaining. The work is set for completion in September this year. Of the 27-km stretch, around 12 km till Kharkopar has already been operational. "The project is being done in joint coordination with the state government. I appeal to the Maharashtra government to let us conduct a joint meeting, make a list of all the issues and sort them out, so that projects are not delayed," Danve said.

mid-day had, in February 2021, highlighted 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 that is 18 years" as per Union government's infrastructure and project monitoring division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The project was approved in March 1996 with an original deadline of March 2004 and a project cost of Rs 495.44 crore. The cost has since risen to R2,980.41 crore, of which Rs 1,768.25 has been spent so far. The project is being done on a cost sharing basis with the state government's CIDCO. One-third of the project cost is borne by Railways and two-thirds by CIDCO. The new line connects the existing harbour line at two points. One arm goes to Nerul and the other to Belapur.