Mumbai: Harbour line soon to ply trains within every 2 minutes

Mumbai: Harbour Railway line in Mumbai is known to have a problem with the frequency of the trains plying. On the Harbour line the trains ply with a time of six-minutes at present, but soon the Harbour line will be plying trains with a time gap of two-minutes each.

In a recently conducted review by the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal he revived the Communications- Based Train Contol (CBTC) signalling system, the review will help the railways to bring time gap between trains to two to two and a half-minutes.

The proposal is already on his way. Once it is approved the project will move ahead, however, it will project could take about three years for implementation. In comparison, Western Railway trains arrive every three to four minutes, while the Central Railway’s main line has a four- minute gap.

When Goyal visited in Mumbai last month, he discussed the revival of CBTC and the elevated suburban corridors. During the visit he had asked the Railway authorities to work in coordination with Metro officials, so the transport projects in the city are moving in the right direction.

According to a report in Mid-day the CBTC will let the pilots in cabin have access to indicators which will help them to understand the exact position of the train, which in return will help to run back-to-back trains at a higher frequency. The system gives real- time information on the maximum speed the train can run at safely, and allows trains to follow close behind each other, without the risk of collision.

Currently the CBTC project will be implemented on the Harbour line, as only one kind of train runs on the Harbour line, where as on the Central line as well as the Western line, the tracks are shared by the local trains as well the goods and long distance trains.