The Nerul-Belapur-Uran link railway project is likely to see the light of the day by December-end. CIDCO MD Bhushan Gagrani has fast-tracked the ongoing project and directed the Central Railway to complete the work.
Both CIDCO and Central Railway have agreed to a 67:33 cost-sharing formula.
“We have laid one track along the stretch to Kharpokar and work is on to complete the other track,” a CIDCO official said.
Central Railways also needs to complete the signalling and electrification work and do the trial runs for obtaining the safety certificate, the official added.
CIDCO chief engineer Sanjay Chotaliya said, “We are responsible for building four new stations on the new Uran link corridor and we have asked the railways to complete the work.”
With a view to providing a new link, that is already delayed by several years, CIDCO has decided to complete the work on two of the four stations on the new link corridor.
The town planning body has kept the work of one station under abeyance while the fourth one is in the tendering stage to finalise the bidder.
The first four stations are Sagarsangam, Targhar, Bamandongri and Kharpokar. Since Sagarsangam is close to Seawoods and Belapur and there is not much traffic in the area, CIDCO has kept the construction of this station in abeyance while Targhar is in the tendering stage, Chotaliya said.
The work on the other railway stations—Bamandongri and Kharpokar is underway. The new stations on the Uran link corridor are Sagarsangam, Targhar, Bamandongri, Kharpokar, Gavan, Ranjanpada, Nhava Sheva, Dronagri and Uran.
Nerul–Uran line to become important link of Mumbai Suburban Rail system
Nerul–Uran rail line – an under construction railway line in Mumbai is part of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. The 27-kilometer line connects Nerul with Uran and has 11 stations. The first phase of the line, a 12-km section from Seawoods to Kharkopar, is scheduled to be completed by December 2017. The remaining section of the line is expected to be completed by June 2019.
The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) was appointed as a New Town Development Authority in 1970. Government acquired the land from 95 villages and handed over to CIDCO for development of towns. To decongest the mother city, Mumbai, CIDCO developed 14 nodes in Navi Mumbai. The development of Navi Mumbai International Airport and 6 railway corridors in Navi Mumbai were meant for increasing connectivity between the towns, nodes and mega establishments.The major features of the rail corridor are direct access from residential to railway station by foot, convenient interchange facility from one corridor to another, double discharge platforms at every station, easy to follow routes and comfortable and pleasant journeys form the key features of the commuter railway system in Navi Mumbai. The proposed Nerul / Belapur – Uran railway line will help to accelerate the growth of Navi Mumbai by providing direct access between Uran town, Jawaharlal Nehru Port, and the Newly developed areas of Mumbai. The Railway line will cater to the passenger traffic demands generated by Jawaharlal Nehru Port, port based industries, ONGC, Defence establishment at Uran and other residential, industrial, and warehousing complexes in Uran taluka.
The Nerul/Belapur-Uran Railway corridor is attached to the Mumbai CST-Panvel Harbour line (Mumbai Suburban Railway). The railway Project between Nerul and Belapur- Seawood-Uran was approved by Ministry of Railways and CIDCO Board. The work on the project began in July 1997. However, due to various unforeseen reasons, the work was delayed and hence stalled, until recently when the project was revived after the tripartite agreement between Railways, CIDCO and Govt. of Maharashtra was executed on 29.07.2011.
The original estimate cost for the project was 495 crore in 1997, which escalated to 1,782 crore. The cost is being shared by CIDCO and the Indian Railways (67:33).
Construction on the Kharkopar, Bamnadongri and Targhar stations began in the first week of March 2017. CIDCO chose to postpone construction of the Sangarsangam station in order to complete the rest of the first phase by the December 2017 deadline.
The total length of the corridor is 27 km and consists of 10 stations; 4 major bridges; 5 Road Over Bridges,15 Road under bridges, 1 track under bridge. The 270 mt platforms for four Broad gauge (B.G.) tracks to cater 12-car electric multiple unit rakes with double discharge. The railway track structure shall comprise 60Kg/m I-class rails, laid on mono block prestressed concrete sleepers to 16660/Km sleeper density.The bridges will be built to Modified Broad gauge (MBG) standard of loading. Stone ballast 65mm gauge with ballast cushion of 300mm below the underside of sleepers will be provided.The 10 stations on the proposed railway line are Seawoods, Sagar Sangam, Targhar, Bamandongari, Kharkopar, Gavhan, Ranjanpada, Nava-Sheva, Dronagiri and Uran. Provisions are made for one arm of the railway line to go to CBD Belapur station from Sagarsangam station.The project is to be completed in two phases Nerul-Seawood to Kharkopar and Kharkopar to Uran. The deadline for the first phase of the project till Kharkopar is December 2017.