Two new corridors for Mumbai; suburban system for Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram

Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today railway minister Suresh Prabhu said that two new corridors are planned for Mumbai suburban network, covering both Central and Western suburban lines, viz, Churchgate-Virar and CSTM-Panvel.

The two corridors will be elevated and will greatly help in reducing congestion in suburban trains, the minister said.

The CSTM-Panvel corridor will be integrated with metro lines for connecting Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport and proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport.

He said all low level platforms in Mumbai suburban stations will be raised in the ensuing financial year to address safety concerns.

Prabhu also said that the ongoing Metro works in Kolkata of around 100 km which when completed would quadruple the installed capacity. He was happy to announce that Phase I of East West corridor of Kolkata Metro would be completed by June 2018.

The minister proposed to review the Ring Railway system in Delhi, comprising 21 stations in partnership with the state government. He suggested a new investment framework in which Indian Railways would share equity contribution with the state governments to ensure cost neutrality on operations.

Prabhu proposed to develop suburban systems of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Chennai by deploying innovative financing mechanisms. He said that Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram warrants a comprehensive suburban system. He also appealed to the state governments to work towards staggering of office timings to reduce peak load on suburban traffic.