After a delay of almost five years — and three months after a stone-laying ceremony was officiated by Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu — Central Railways (CR) is set to begin work on the Parel Terminus after the monsoon.
The work, which was supposed to begin in June, was postponed as the tracks leading to the Parel workshop and Matunga workshop need to be made available for the work to be carried out. “We will need to talk to Western Railway under which the Parel workshop comes and our own Matunga workshop needs to be co-ordinated with, to actually start the work. But, civil works that will lay the foundation for the terminus could be started only after the monsoon,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
The terminus will require the complete uprooting of the goods line that runs to the western side of platform no. 1 at Parel station, which is used to move trains towards Dadar. A new platform will be constructed in its place, which will be 408 metres long.
Trains that currently stop at platform no.1 will be completely cut off and it will be converted into a terminal from where originating and terminating trains will run, adding to 300-plus services capacity of CR. The May 29 ceremony, which was attended by Mr Prabhu was held as the CR had allotted civil-works contract worth Rs 25 crore. The terminus itself is estimated to cost Rs 60 crore. Commuter groups, politicians and CR officials have been lobbying for the terminus for the past five years, with suggestions and proposals being sent to the Railway Board in Delhi ever since. But, Mr Prabhu finally approved the project late last year.
CR, divisional railway manager, Ravinder Goyal said work is underway. “Work of this scale will begin only after monsoon. But that does not mean that things were not being done earlier; these kinds of works have to planned well and executed with precision, as we will doing it while running trains,” he said.
