Work on Virar-Dahanu suburban stretch to be completed by June '08

Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) plans to extend the suburban Western Railway network up to Dahanu Road. The development will enable commuters to travel form Dahanu to Churchgate without breaking their journey at Virar.

At present, local trains run between Churchgate and Virar on the western line. The work to increase the distance between the two running tracks on Virar-Dhanu stretch has started and will be completed by June 2008.

"Local trains are broader than normal mail trains. If two locals run simultaneously on the up and down tracks, the distance between has to be safe. So the track centers are being shifted before we run trains on them," said Ashok Kumar, chief operating manager MRVC.

He added that the number of tracks would remain two unlike the proposed four tracks between Borivali and Virar. Borivali and Virar will have four tracks by March 2007.

Extending services to Dahanu will require additional rakes and the travel time will increase by an hour. To meet this requirement 101 rakes are expected to arrive by April 2007. The Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai is manufacturing the rakes.

The new rakes will be commissioned on both the western and central lines.