Mumbai: First phase of Seawoods-Uran Railway line may not start by March, since the CIDCO (City Industrial Development Corporation) is yet to complete the work of two stations of the Phase (Belapur-Seawoods-Kharkopar). The work of the stations will be completed only by mid-April. Meanwhile, the work for Targhar station of Phase 1 will take a longer time to complete since CIDCO authorities are planning to make the station bigger, due to its proximity to the new airport in Navi Mumbai.
“The tracks are almost laid, few tests are required to be carried on which will be done by the railway authorities. The construction of stations are yet to be completed, two stations will be ready by mid-April,” said Bhushan Gagrani, managing director, CIDCO. The entire line will have 10 stations, which will include Seawoods, Sagarsangam, Targhar, Bamandongari, Kharkopar, Gavan, Ranjanpada, Nhavasheva, Dronagiri, and Uran.
“Targhar station will take little more time because we changed the station design and have planned to make it bigger than normal stations. This decision has been taken because Targhar is just 500 metres away from the new airport, so it can accommodate the passengers travelling towards the airport too,” added Mr Gagrani. The line was initially expected to start by December 2017; this was pushed to March 2018. “Only after work by CIDCO is completed, we will be in readiness,” said Sunil Udasi, chief PRO of Central Railway (CR).
Meanwhile, the second phase of the project from Kharkopar to Uran that was stuck in land acquisition process, now the process has been started, confirmed CIDCO. “So far 48 land holders have given their consent for acquisition, we need about 90 plots to start the Phase 2,” said Mr Gagrani.
The cost of the entire project is Rs 1,782 crores, it will be shared by CR and CIDCO in a sharing ratio of 67:33.
