Mumbaikars had something to cheer on Thursday, as Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced an allocation of Rs 11,000 crore for the expansion of the metropolis’ local train network, involving the laying of 90 km of double line tracks.
Jaitely’s announcement should been seen in the context of the fact that 85 lakh commuters currently use the suburban networks on both the Western Railway and Central Railway.
In effect, the suburban railway networks — considered the lifelines of Mumbai, will be augmented with an additional pair (Up and Down) of 90 km railway line tracks, at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore,
Jaitley said that 150 kilometers of additional suburban network was being planned, at a cost of over Rs 40,000 crore. The proposed additional suburban network involved elevated corridors on some sections.
Western Railway’s chief spokesperson Ravinder Bhakar said that the budget had allocated funds for the setting up of Railway University at Vadodara. This University will also be furnished with the facility for training the manpower for the ambitious Mumbai – Ahmedabad Bullet train project.
In his consolidated General budget for 2018-19 in which the Finance Minister pegged the Railway Capital Expenditure for the year at Rs.1,48,528 crore, Jaitley indicated that a large part of the Capex is devoted to capacity creation.
The capacity augmentation includes 4000 kilometers of electrified railway network which is slated for commissioning during the current year 2017 - 18.
Over 3600 kms of track renewal work is also targeted during the current fiscal. Furthermore, 18000 kms of doubling of tracks, third and fourth line works and 5000 kms of gauge conversion has been proposed to transform almost the entire network into Broad Gauge.
More than 4,267 unmanned level crossings in the Broad Gauge network to be eliminated in the next two years. Adequate number of rolling stock – 12000 wagons, 5160 coaches and approximately 700 locomotives will be procured during 2018-19 and redevelopment of 600 major railway stations is being taken up.
On passenger amenities front, all stations with footfall of greater than 25,000 shall be provided with escalators. “All the railway stations and trains will increasingly have Wi - Fi and CCTV. Modern train sets to be manufactured at ICF, Perambur. First such train set to be rolled out in 2018. Also, the work on Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors is in full swing,” Bhakar said, quoting the salient features in Jaitley’s budget.