The World Bank (WB), which is the major lender for all the Mumbai Urban Transport Projects (MUTP), has asked Railways to concentrate on projects between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Thane/Vashi and Churchgate to Borivali, instead of far-flung suburbs, such as Virar-Dahanu and Kalyan-Airoli.
The WB met with city railway planners on Thursday this week and asked them why projects in far-flung areas have been planned and that it would be better to decongest the densest corridors in Mumbai. WB officials have suggested that city-projects such as CST-Thane be designed instead of Panvel-Diva-Vasai that is included in the MUTP III or projects like Churchgate-Andheri/Borivali be given precedence over the Virar-Dahanu instead. “The WB said it would prefer that funds for projects in the city were used for sections with the densest traffic. It is true that the footfalls gets scantier and scantier as we enter the far-flung suburbs, so they have asked us to concentrate on projects that will help make travel in these parts more easy,” said a senior railway official.
The WB had already warned officials of withdrawing support owing to increased number of deaths on Mumbai’s suburban sector. It is because of this that the WR has initiated the automatic door-closing project, twice. “The officials of WB feel that we are trying to decongest the far-off suburbs when they still do not have a crushing footfall situation, as on major sections,” said the official.
The WB has been giving loans from the MUTP I to the recently declared III as part of its economic and infrastructure aid to developing countries, including India, China, Japan and Singapore in the Pacific belt.
