City rail passengers give wish list ahead of railway budget, ask for focus on projects in Mumbai, restoration of services to pre-pandemic levels
Passengers ask for city to be made an independent zone. File pic
With the railway budget set to be announced on Monday along with the general budget, city commuter associations and other stakeholders have prepared a wish list for the upcoming year.
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“The wish list is simple. Instead of announcing new projects and earmarking money for them, the focus should be on completing existing projects that have been stuck. There should be a focus on making Mumbai an independent zone, create new stations like Guravli so that they can help passengers beyond Kalyan, where stations are far away,” Nandkumar Deshmukh, president of Federation of Suburban Passengers Association said.
“In addition to this, the railways should focus on procuring more trains, build a new terminus at Panvel, run multiple units between Thane-Nashik, Pune, finish the long-pending Belapur-Uran line and the quadrupling of Kalyan-Kasara line, increase 15-car local services and give more halts of mail/express trains at Thane,” Deshmukh added.
Yatri Sangh Mumbai leader and member of National Railway Users Consultative Committee Subhash Gupta said the focus should be on the complete restoration of trains to pre-COVID levels and city-specific projects. “Adequate funding should be provided to the Mumbai Urban Transport Projects and they should begin in time to provide timely relief to Mumbaikars. The effects of the pandemic should not affect the funding pattern for Mumbai railway developmental works,” he added.
“The COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a challenging year. The government launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to nurture and build autonomous and sustainable sourcing and supply chain capabilities. Several other initiatives to boost infra development, such as the national infrastructure pipeline, roll-out of private trains and Regional Rapid Transit Systems (RRTS) are likely to create more avenues for collaboration in the future,” Alain Spohr, managing director, Alstom India & South Asia, said.
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