Rail Budget 2015: Prabhu gives Mumbai's suburban railways a boost with MUTP-III sanction

Mumbai: With the railway minister Suresh Prabhu’s announcement of taking up the third phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), it is set to boost the rail infrastructure in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

According to the budget document, the third phase of MUTP includes quadrupling of the Virar-Dahanu road, doubling of the Panvel-Karjat line, a new suburban corridor link between Airoli-Kalwa, station redevelopment, trespass control between stations on the central and western railways. These corridors have been prioritised under the MUTP III for the period of 2014-2021.

The third phase of the project was supposed to have begun as far back as in 2011, but has been stuck in red tape so far. The delay in approving the third phase has resulted in escalating the cost from Rs 8775 crore to Rs 11,441 crore.

As of now, the ministry has allocated Rs 1 crore in the budget. So, we can start the basic work on it, said an official.

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation which is responsible for the project had estimated the cost of the project at Rs 52,000 crore and had said it would take until 2031 to complete it.

“The budgetary allocation for Mumbai is satisfactory. We have got enough funds compared to last year. It would be difficult for us to spend the funds allocated to us, but we will try to utilise all the funds,” said SK Sood, general manager of central railway and western railway.

He added that the work of DC-AC conversion under the MUTP II was going on and test trials had been conducted and were successful. “In the process, some mistakes have come to light and are being rectified. We are now ensuring that the safety standards are met,” he said.

Officials said that the augmentation of capacity by MUTP II will hardly be sufficient to last few years because of the ever rising demand. Hence, there is a further need of augmenting and strengthening the existing suburban rail infrastructure.

The Railway Minister has also announced that the operation of the city’s first air-conditioned train would begin soon.

“We are expecting the first AC local in city in September and trials will be conducted in October. Depending on the results of the trials, it will be decided when it will become operational,” said Sood.

However, the railway budget has received mixed reactions from city activists.

“It is for the first time in the history rail budgets that no big announcements were made. There is no big ticket projects for Mumbai, it is focused on improving existing services, safety and security and cleanliness, AC local, helpline for all complaints are good initiatives,” said Subhash Gupta, president of Yatri Sangh Mumbai.

Anil Galgali, an RTI activist said that the railway budget had once again failed to realise the aspirations, needs and wants of Mumbaikars.

“It contains nothing for Mumbaikars and is nothing but pure rhetoric and illustrations of ideas and yoga. It has once again made a fool of us. AC local train is an old promise. Also there is no reference to the Virar-Churchgate and CST-Panvel elevated corridor,” said Galgali adding that the city needed additional trains, but the budget had ignored it completely.

“Also it was imperative of the government to propose reduction in train fares looking at the reduced price of diesel, which also has not happened,” he added.