Part of Rs 403 cr Thane-Turbhe-Vashi/Nerul corridor, Rabale’s fancy station
opens in April; Railway expects commuter traffic to double
Swapnil Rawal & Divya Sama
This could be the great big push that Navi Mumbai needed.
After the proposed SEZ, the Sewri-Nhava sea link, the real estate boom, here’s
something more immediate for millions of harried commuters: better rail
connectivity.
According to Central Railway officials, next month will see the inauguration
of the Rabale railway station, a futuristically designed steel and glass
structure that draws a double dekko from everyone passing through the
somewhat drab residential pockets-gradually growing in number, size and
cost-in the largely industrial corridor.
Rabale is a part of the Rs 403-cr Thane-Turbhe-Vashi/Nerul rail corridor
which caters not only to various industries around the Turbhe area, but also
to those living in Thane and Navi Mumbai.
Rabale station is designed by architect Ratan Batliboi. “The four-platform
station has marble clearing, offers sufficient parking space. Shining
galvanized sheets are used at the top which gives it its futuristic look,”
said B R Gaikwad, chief PRO of City and Industrial Development Corporation
(CIDCO), which is sharing the cost of the project with the railways.
Cutting across the north-south axis of the city, the corridor runs from
Thane on the main line of Central Railway to Navi Mumbai on the harbour
line. It includes stations that are as fanciful as the to-be-inaugurated
Rabale: Airoli, Ghansoli, Koperkhairane and Turbhe, all well-designed
structures ready for the expected increase in commuter numbers.
Already, CR has increased services between Thane and Vashi from 42 to 55
daily trains.
“From March 15, Central Railway has increased 13 services on the Thane-Vashi
route. We have also added seven services in the harbour line looking at the
increase in the commuter traffic,” said CR Divisional Railway Manager J N
Lal.
As of now, Navi Mumbai’s passenger traffic is growing daily. According to
CR, 57,698 card tickets and 2,671 season tickets are bought daily by people
traveling in and out of the Navi Mumbai region. This, CR believes, will
double to around 1 lakh card tickets and around 4,000 season tickets a day.
“Presently, there is a link from Thane to Vashi. Now, in this project, the
railways are working out a link from Turbhe to Nerul. So, people who want to
commute to Panvel do not have to change trains from Vashi to Panvel. The
trains in this corridor will meet at Juinagar and thus save precious time
for the commuter,” said Lal.
“The Thane-Turbhe-Vashi-Belapur project will definitely be beneficial, for
we expect a considerable increase in commuter rush due to the construction
of an international airport, the SEZ, and new residential complexes,” says B
R Gaikwad.
Another project that will help those in Navi Mumbai-especially those who
visit the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust for business-is the electrification
and doubling of the line connecting Uran, near JNPT, to the
recently-inaugurated Seawood station. Right now, there’s a single line,
which is used for goods trains.
“But once the electrified double line is in place, passenger traffic along
this route will be possible too,” said CR chief PRO Srinivas Mudgerikar,
who, however, is wary of commenting on a time-frame for the project’s
completion.
For Yashwant Bhave, a businessman supplying laboratory equipment in schools
and colleges and member of Mumbai Suburban Railway Passenger Association,
the link means saving over an hour of travel time. “I travel to JNPT very
often for my business. I travel by road, a ride of around 40 km. But if this
link is in place, my travel worries will be over.”
URL http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=228296