The procurement of new trains for the 5th and 6th line as well as the Seawood to Uran line on the Central Railway (CR) is more likely to be done together, senior railway officials have said. This means even though almost more than half of the work on the Seawood-Uran line has been completed, the officials might have to slow the work down a bit because completion of the other projects is expected to take four to five years.
The CR officials have had said that the work on the 5th and 6th line between Kurla to Kalyan will be initiated soon but the railway officials said the same line sections between CST and Kurla will take time due to non-availability of land in this area. This has pushed the procurement time of the coaches for Seawood-Uran line as well. “We have to procure around 153 coaches for the Seawood-Uran line and another 152 for the mainline. The problem is that the railway will most likely not place two separate orders at different times for these rakes and as a result the project that has reached a decent completion — in this case the Seawood-Uran — has a possibility of lagging behind and will not get the rakes it’s supposed to,” said a senior railway official.
Some officials maintain that the railway board might approve the rakes needed for the 5th and 6th line first. “If this happens, we will take these trains and run it on the Seawood-Uran line first and then transfer them to mainline once the work is done or run the rakes under Seawood-Uran on the 5th and 6th instead,” said another senior railway official. The Seawood-Uran line has been built because of the Navi Mumbai International airport, while on the other hand the 5th and 6th line is expected to separate the CR’s suburban line from the goods and express trains.
