The demand for Konkan Railway trains spikes during this season for Ganesh Festival and now they are running against time to finish one of their most important works on Roha-Veer section.
The Konkan Railway is expected to finish the work of augmenting the rail network and doubling on this route by month end. However, the impact of the heightened pace of work is being felt by the trains running on Mumbai-Goa route, as they are getting delayed.
The Konkan Railway, in a bid to upgrade rail infrastructure, are laying another rail track on this 46.8-km-long Roha-Veer route. This will be among the first works in and around Mumbai for Konkan Railway, where they will augment the rail lines from single to double. A vital part of this work began on August 21 which is expected to complete on August 30.
Sources said that the work on this 46.8-km-long stretch began in November 2016 and will incur a cost of Rs 530 crore. As part of the doubling of the track in the Roha–Veer section, the work involves construction of 11 major bridges, 2 road under bridges, one road over bridge and 197 minor bridges, including earthwork and track linking.
This work is expected to augment the number of trains running on the Mumbai -Goa Mangaluru-Kerala routes with the addition of another rail line. Moreover, it will also reduce the waiting time, cut down delays in journey and improve speed, as two rail lines shall be available.
Its repercussion, however, would be that several trains plying on the Konkan Railway network and via Mangaluru will be regulated till August 30 to facilitate track doubling work between Roha and Veer sections.
“The work on doubling in the Roha-Veer section began in November 2016. For now, the timings of at least 19 trains will be regulated,” said G R Karandikar, Deputy General Manager, PR, Konkan Railway.
The Central Railway and the Konkan Railway will be running regular trains plus Ganpati special trains which are booked well in advance. This year, too, despite the threat of a Covid third wave looming, according to railway officials, there is demand for trains to Konkan.
The railway officials said that they will have to ensure that works get completed by this month end so that the further process of inspections by Commissioner of Railway Safety, trial runs on this new line and other formalities can be completed.
