PMO asks CR and CIDCO to complete 1st phase of the 27-km project by this year; the remaining should be done by 2019
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked both Central Railway (CR) and City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) — Navi Mumbai's planning authority — to complete the first phase of the 27 km Nerul-Belapur-Seawoods-Uran project by December 2017.
The entire project has to be completed by June 2019. These orders were given to CR and CIDCO in the last Pragati meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi on February 22. The PMO also ordered the state government to hand over land for the project by April.
The project is among the oldest in the country and has been under various stages of construction since July 1997. The first phase is a 12 km stretch from Seawoods to Kharkoper while the entire 27 km stretch is from Seawoods to Uran with a small branch line from a station called Sagarsangam to Belapur.
The ten stations on the line are Seawoods, Sagarsangam, Targhar, Bamandongari, Kharkopar, Gavan, Ranjanpada, Nhavasheva, Dronagiri, and Uran.
The Rs 1800 crore project, once complete, has the potential to build a completely new urban agglomeration to complement Navi Mumbai. It would create a port-based industrial hub around Dronagiri as well as Nhava Sheva — home to the country's largest container port JNPT — and Uran, one of the country's biggest fishing areas, which supplies about 70 per cent of all fish that comes into Mumbai. Urna also has gas-based industries of ONGC and GAIL as well as a naval base. The development of the hinterland due to the project would include the commercial development of Bamandongri, which feeds the Ulwe node close to the proposed Navi Mumbai international airport.
Speaking to DNA, Mahesh Gupta, Chief Administrative Officer (construction), CR, said that the December deadline for the first phase can be met if CIDCO hands over the station buildings to CR by August.
"For the entire 27 km stretch to be completed by June 2019, that is no issue. We can do it," Gupta said.
When contacted, Bhushan Gagrani, Managing Director of CIDCO, said no effort would be spared to keep to the deadline.
"We are supposed to make four station buildings out of 10 stations on the 27 km route. These four stations are Sagarsangam, Targhar, Bamandongri, and Kharkoper. We plan to complete the operational part of the stations by August-September so that the railways can conduct tests for signalling and the like by December 2017. As of now, only 3 km of tracks is left to be built and we believe the target of June 2019 for the entire project is very much achievable."
ABOUT THE PROJECT
- According to current plans, Central Railway will run the corridor with 11 suburban rakes, with a high chance that these would be air-conditioned ones.
- The project has a total of five road-overbridges and 15 road-underbridges. The most important bridge on the corridor will be a 751-metre-long one over the Panvel sea creek.
- Each stations will have four tracks and each platform will be 270 metres long and will allow passengers to alight at stations from both sides of the train.
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