SERVING THE SUBURBS
Locals could go right up to Dahanu
Anticipating Population Growth, Rlys Shifts Focus To Section Beyond Virar
Devraj Dasgupta
With suburban trains running choc-a-bloc up to Virar, the railway
authorities are now planning to handle commuter traffic beyond this point as
well. The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, the nodal agency for suburban
railway projects, has started work to extend local services right up to
Dahanu, which is a good 125 km from Churchgate.
Better late than never, Western Railway is about to finish laying the
third and fourth lines between Borivali and Virar. The quadrupling of tracks
has, however, come more as a delayed reaction to the crying need for
additional services up to Virar. In fact, there were umpteen mini riots at
Borivali station in protest against inadequate suburban services up to
Virar.
Perhaps drawing a lesson from these mistakes, the MRVC is slowly
shifting its focus to the 65-km Virar-Dahanu section anticipating a
significant growth in the number of settlements on this stretch in the near
future. To begin with, it has called for tenders for electrification work at
all stations up to Dahanu road to facilitate running of suburban trains at a
later date.
Prakash Rao Vazalwar, chief operations manager of MRVC, confirmed that
work in the farthest suburbs of the Mumbai metropolitan region has started
in right earnest. “We already had a business plan prepared in 2002 which was
ratified by the railways and the state government. Much of it is now part of
the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP-1),” he said.
Under the present plan, a car-shed for overhaul and maintenance of
suburban trains is coming up at Virar and work is on in full swing. In
addition, MRVC is planning to have an upgraded station at Dahanu Road, the
new terminating point for Mumbai’s suburban trains.
“We need to have stabling lines at Dahanu to park trains for a few
hours. The Dahanu station will also get new island platforms to allow
termination of services,” he said.
The 2002 business plan had projected the need-to begin with-to have only
three services in an hour to Dahanu Road in both directions. According to
this plan, the existing automatic signalling system suitable for outstation
mail/express trains would also work for the suburban services. MRVC
officials, however, feel that the residential population is growing rapidly
between Virar and Dahanu Road and just three services an hour will not
suffice. In such a scenario, the railways will have to reduce the spacing of
signals to facilitate increased services from Virar to Dahanu Road.
At present, the lines are used to run only long-distance trains whose
width is slightly less than that of Mumbai’s locals. Once wide-bodied
suburban trains are introduced on this section, the railways would have to
shift tracks at some places to ensure adequate gap between Up and Down
locals.