The first mega block of 18 hours on the Thane-Diva stretch in December is likely to take place this week or the weekend. The block will take place as the first phase of the final works for laying two additional rail lines on this stretch will be carried out. This is likely to affect suburban trains as several services are likely to get cancelled. In the coming days, the blocks will be carried out from 18 hours to 72 hours on this route.
The work on adding these two rail lines on the 9-km stretch is going on for years now. Even now there are delays, though the works are in the last stages. Sources said that currently, they are waiting for a few final clearances and checks before the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) officially informs the Central Railway about this 18 hours block.
“There are some final checks that are pending after which we will take this 18-hours mega block. At the fag-end of these works, we will also have to take a 72-hours block on this route after which the two new lines will finally be ready,” said an official from MRVC.
The final block is expected to be carried out on January 16 on this 9 km long Thane-Diva route which will finally lead to the completion of one of the longest-running rail projects in Mumbai.
The CR authorities said that they are in touch with MRVC and that they shall make necessary preparations based on the information received from the latter.
“We will need at least three days for carrying out preparatory works. These include making a timetable for cancelling suburban and long-distance trains, informing other railway zones about this work so that necessary cancellations and rescheduling of timings can be done and providing other help wherever needed,” said a CR official.
In this block, they are likely to cut and connect the rail tracks to the new tunnel. The Commissioner of Railway Safety will make final inspections after which line shall be opened up. This inspection and opening of the lines are likely to take place simultaneously. In December, they will be taking blocks of anywhere between 8 hours to 36 hours and gradually, as the project nears completion, the mega block duration will increase.
During this period of mega blocks, train operations are expected to be affected on the Thane-Kalyan stretch. The officials from Central Railway said that they are in talks with MRVC for the blocks and accordingly train diversions, cancellations and special services will be operated during the multiple blocks planned.
The addition of 5th and 6th lines will provide seamless rail lines from Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to Kalyan for the long-distance trains.
At present, the six rail lines narrow down to four at Thane causing a bottleneck thus, delaying train services. The segregation of the suburban locals and long-distance trains will allow the CR authorities to operate 100 more local services in the long run. This will for sure, give leeway to add AC train services in the suburban system.
Work on this 9-km route is ongoing for 11 years now. Initially, it was marred due to encroachments and later technical glitches. The trials will begin after this long work, after which it will be opened for the public.
The deadline for the project, sanctioned in 2008, was December 2015, which was revised to December 2017, then to March 2019, June 2020, December 2021 and now March 2022. The cost has escalated from about Rs 130 crore to Rs 440 crore.
