Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation to set up two new carsheds for local trains as fleet to grow

The local train carshed at Virar was built in 2011

No more parking woes for local trains. Mumbai's suburban rail network is now being taken to the next level with the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) beginning the land acquisition process for two new mega local carsheds in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to stable more than 300 local trains. This is the first big expansion of this scale of the Mumbai suburban railway.

The two carsheds are being set up at Vangaon on Western Railway (WR) and Bhivpuri on the Central Railway (CR) under Phase III of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-3A). MRVC officials said the new carsheds will be high-tech and advanced with plans to install sensors for inspection of locals, which is done manually at present. "Each carshed will have state-of-the-art facilities and will be designed to maintain around 80-100 trains at a time," MRVC Chairman and Managing Director Ravi Agarwal said.

At present, Mumbai railways have six carsheds - three on CR at Kurla, Kalwa and Sanpada, and three on WR at Mahalaxmi, Kandivli and Virar. These six carsheds maintain a fleet of 250 trains which are the lifeline of Mumbai. The trains undergo inspection and maintenance at these sheds every day, besides parking. Officials said the new carsheds will be required as suburban railway lines are being extended and more and more trains would be inducted. The new carsheds will also help unburden the load on the existing carsheds.

Once the quadrupling of Virar-Dahanu line is complete, suburban services to Dahanu are expected to go up, for which Vangaon, located just before Dahanu station from Mumbai side, will be a vantage point. New suburban corridors are also being planned between Karjat and Panvel for which Bhivpuri, just before Karjat station from Mumbai side, will be a vantage point.

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No. of existing carsheds for Mumbai suburban railways