No big-ticket projects for Mumbai were announced in the Union Budget for 2019-20, but two key projects received significant allocations — enabling 15-coach trains in the ‘slow’ corridor between Andheri and Virar, and the increase in speed of travel between Mumbai and Delhi.
Mumbai-Delhi by 2022
The Mumbai-Delhi project, which aims to increase speed of travel to up to 200 km per hour, thereby reducing travel time to 12 hours, had received a token allocation of ₹1 lakh in the interim budget but has received a budgetary provision of ₹500 crore in the Union Budget. The project will be executed by Western Railway (WR) and is expected to be completed by 2022. It involves upgrading the corridor with new tracks, a signalling system, removal of level crossings, and so on.
The project to enable 15-coach trains between Andheri and Virar received a ₹12-crore allocation. WR is aiming to complete a major portion of the work by December 2019, said Ravinder Bhakar, Chief Public Relations Officer.
The extension of platforms 10, 11, 12 and 13 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus will be carried out for ₹4 crore. It will allow 24-coach, long-distance trains to run from the four platforms, increasing the capacity of existing trains.
The other key project announced in the interim budget was the development of a new coaching terminal at Jogeshwari. The project, which had a token allocation of ₹1 lakh in the interim budget, received an allocation of ₹10 lakh for this fiscal. The proposed Latur Coach Factory too got a budgetary provision of ₹200 crore.
Allocations for a series of infrastructure projects under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) remained unchanged from the interim budget. The Union government has made a provision of ₹244.92 crore for MUTP 2, ₹283.78 crore for MUTP 3 and ₹50 crore MUTP 3A, which had received clearances earlier this year.
MUTP 2 has three crucial works that are pending — the fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Diva, the fifth and sixth lines between Kurla and CSMT and the sixth line between Mumbai Central and Borivali.
All three projects have been under construction for nearly a decade. Works under MUTP 3 are in the initial stages, with land acquisition under way for two key projects — the new Panvel-Karjat corridor and Virar-Dahanu quadrupling.
Unchanged budgets
In addition to the various works under MUTP, the Belapur-Seawoods-Uran line received a budgetary provision of ₹154 crore.
Phase 1 of the project connecting Belapur and Nerul to Kharkopar was inaugurated last year. Budgetary provisions for the third line between Kalyan and Kasara, and the Panvel coaching terminus remained unchanged at ₹160 crore and ₹89 crore respectively.
WR has received ₹31 crore for the re-girdering of rail over bridges between Churchgate and Virar and ₹47 crore for various works related to foot over bridges (FOBs). Central Railway has been allocated ₹10 crore for FOBs in its Mumbai division.