Railways’ latest plan for city’s teeming population seems to have not factored in a vital truth–that Mumbai is starved of space!
Platform 1 of Bandra Terminus, one of the city’s eight existing rail terminal stations. File Pic/Anurag Ahire
Will the city be able to handle more trains? The recent approval of major projects that would increase the capacity and number of trains connecting various nodes of the country to the city will only lead to congestion and further delays if new termini and rail hubs on the outskirts of the city are not created, experts say. While Central Railway (CR) is working on a full-fledged mega terminus at Panvel station along with a maintenance yard and other allied facilities, Western Railway (WR) has announced plans to build termini at Jogeshwari and Vasai.
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At present, WR runs 1,406 suburban services and, on an average, 46 trains arrive and depart every day in the Mumbai area (Mumbai Central, Bandra Terminus, Dadar and Borivli). Apart from these, there are 60 ‘through’ trains, which halt at Vasai Road and go to the CR or towards Vadodara. These trains (30 up and 30 down) pass between Vadodara and Vasai. Also, two food corporation freight trains (one up and one down) travel up to Jogeshwari.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, one of the city’s eight existing rail terminal stations. File Pic/Ashish Raje
Sources said what is being done at Jogeshwari and Vasai are not full-fledged termini but additional platforms to create capacity. The termini will have platform return trains, which means trains will be allowed to berth and leave, but there will be no full-time maintenance, upkeep, pit lines or stabling. Both the termini will just translate to additional platform capacity.
Increased capacity
Prathamesh Prabhutendolkar, joint secretary of the Dahanu Vaitarna Pravasi Sevabhavi Sanstha, said, “Once the Virar-Dahanu Road quadrupling [a project to add two rail lines to the existing two on WR’s Virar-Dahanu route] is completed in the next few years, the capacity of trains will be increased by three to four times. This will be in addition to the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and the high-speed rail line and stations. The industrial and residential belt of Virar-Dahanu Road will not just see a boost in real estate but also lead to population moving there due to open space as newer townships develop. It is from these newer townships beyond Virar that people will travel and do you expect them to come to Borivli, Jogeshwari or even Vasai for that matter? It is high time the WR set up a full-fledged mega terminus beyond Virar.”
“Dahanu, on the outskirts of Mumbai, is the best place to decongest the city and WR should set up a terminus there as it will cause interferences with the suburban train schedule to cease. There is a Dahanu-Nashik link coming up and Dahanu would be the best place to have a terminal. There is open land there and the WR should seriously consider this," he added.
Panvel mega terminus
CR is turning Panvel station into a rail hub. There are multiple corridors merging along with the DFC passing there with a full-fledged terminus and a maintenance yard coming up. Works are already at an advanced stage. The new Panvel terminus project involves a new island platform of 26-coach length and a home platform with a circulating area for passengers. In addition, it involves the construction of a foot overbridge and a 1,500-sq-m station building with supporting facilities. Along with this, the new Kalamboli maintenance hub includes the provision of four washing-cum-pit lines, two stabling lines of 26-coach length and entry-exit lines for 26-coach trains in addition to a 130x10-m shed. The Panvel terminus and the Kamboli coaching complex will be linked with a separate third line with necessary connectivity on both sides so that it does not infringe on the existing operational traffic.
New lines and more trains
The recent approval of three major railway projects—the Prayagraj-Manikpur third line, Bhusawal-Khandwa third and fourth lines and the Manmad-Jalgaon fourth line—means that these corridors will feed more trains to the city’s nine existing rail termini, which are being upgraded simultaneously. These projects aim to improve railway infrastructure across Maharashtra, enhance connectivity with Madhya Pradesh, and strengthen the Mumbai-Prayagraj-Varanasi corridor. A large number of media representatives joined the recently held conference from Mumbai, Nashik, Bhusawal, Bhopal, Jabalpur and Prayagraj. The proposed multi-tracking projects will ease operations and reduce congestion, leading to much-needed infrastructural development on some of the busiest sections between Mumbai and Prayagraj.
Existing Mumbai rail termini
Mumbai has eight existing rail terminal stations—Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai Central, Dadar, Bandra, Kurla LTT, Kalyan, Vasai and Panvel—while the ninth one, at Jogeshwari, is under construction.
The new termini
Estimated at a cost of Rs 68.99 crore, the Jogeshwari terminus is essentially a 24-coach island platform to accommodate 12 pairs of mail express trains daily. It will serve as a “platform-return” terminus for the trains with a watering facility, which means trains will arrive, watered up and readied for the next journey without any major upkeep or maintenance. The terminus includes two berthing lines for parking trains and a line for shunting movement.
Originally conceived 11 years ago and later pushed by former Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, the Vasai terminus will have a few platforms and stabling lines, with a watering facility but will see no full-fledged maintenance activities. Construction of this terminus also requires some private and government land acquisition, and work could be completed once the Dedicated Freight Corridor project at Vasai is completed.
Official Speak
“Western Railway is continuously wor king on improvements and these two termini will definitely boost the capacity and cater to additional trains. It would be beneficial to all those staying at Borivli and beyond who will not have to come all the way to Dadar and Mumbai Central,” Vineet Abhishek, chief public relations officer, WR, said.
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