Mumbai: Suburban services extension up to Vashi on harbour line completes 30 years

Suburban services were extended up to Vashi on harbour line on May 9th day 1992 . "Extension of suburban services up Vashi completes 30 years. First local services between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai were run on 9th May 1992 and the inaugural run was flagged off by then president R Venkataraman at Vashi,” said an official of CR.

Before that passengers need to travel by road after Mankhurd ."Until then passengers had to take buses from Mankhurd to Vashi. Some passengers would prefer bus services directly from Dadar to Vashi, which used to take around one hours 20 minutes,” said railway officials, adding that currently passengers will be able to reach Vashi from CSMT in just 50 minutes.

"The first section of the harbour line between Kurla and Reay Road was opened on 12 December 1910. In 1925, the line was connected to the then Victoria Terminus via an elevated rail corridor between Dockyard Road and Sandhurst Road. Suburban services to Mankhurd began in 1951," said an official of CR.

"Later, the line was extended from Mankhurd to serve most of Navi Mumbai through the suburban rail network via the Mankhurd–Belapur–Panvel rail corridor which was commissioned in phases in the 1990s," added an official.

" Vashi was connected directly from CSMT ( then VT) through local train services in May 1992, Nerul in February 1993, Belapur in June 1993 and Panvel in June 1998," said V. Chandrashekhar , senior public relation officer of CR adding that in 2004, the Trans-Harbour line was opened to the public. The line directly connected Vashi to Thane. This proved to be a boon for commuters of the two stations, who, until then, had to take a circuitous route via Mumbai city and had to change trains at Kurla.