CSTM-Panvel elevated line tenders to be floated soon, work may start this year

Mumbai: Work on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSTM)-Panvel elevated corridor may start this year. Officials from the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) have begun the process to open the tenders as soon as they get the final sanction, which is expected in the February 1 budget.

The CST-Panvel corridor is the only one left in the pipeline after the railway minister Piyush Goyal said that the Bandra-Virar corridor would end up being a duplicate of the Colaba-SEEPZ metro line, thus scrapping it.

An official said, “The work is expected to begin by the end of the year but we are working on it from now itself because if we don’t, we would be completely unprepared when the sanction comes through this budget.”

The elevated corridor will be completely air-conditioned and fits in well with the recent wave from Delhi to convert the Mumbai trains. The railways have mapped the route in a way so that it stays parallel to most of the current Harbour line. For example, the train will be elevated and will begin from near the Orange Gate and will be brought to Dockyard road, which is already elevated. The train will continue parallelly from Dockyard to Vashi.