Mumbai: Mumbaikars’ travelling woes could end in the next five years. After the completion of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III by 2021, Mumbaikars won’t need to change trains to travel to far off suburbs. The railways expects to accommodate 2.2 crore new passengers via the new corridors like Panvel-Karjat , Airoli-Kalwa and Virar-Dahanu. A total of 47 brand new trains are expected to be ready by 2021.
The MUTP III was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the city on December 25, last year. An official said, “The project has scope to provide space for more passengers than MUTP I and II, which had accommodated 1.1 crore passengers.”
The work for MUTP III will begin soon. An official on the condition of anonymity said, “The current corridors cannot be increased, so these corridors are important for us. They will help in reducing the crowd as we anticipate that the offices and residences will grow around these areas. MUPT III will also decrease the pressure on the conventional routes of CST and Churchgate.”
The total number of passengers that travel on both the Central and Western Railway has gone up by almost 74 lakh per day and the railways fears that the lack of alternate modes of transport will further saturate these corridors.
Prabhat Sahai, chief managing director, Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), said that, “The average number of kms travelled by one person per day had gone up from 28 km per day to 33 km between MUTP I and II. So we hope that this distance will increase further after completion of MUTP III.”
