The Central Railway’s much-awaited Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Panvel fast corridor has hit a roadblock as the divisional administration has found a few “hurdles” in implementing the project and has expressed its concerns to top officials.

The Mumbai division of Central Railway, which would supervise the project, recently wrote to its General Manager that the project cannot be executed as it may cause frequent disruptions in suburban train operations.

With this move, the plan to kickstart the ambitious project, worth over ₹14,000 crore, by the end of next month has hit a roadblock.

The 48.3-km long CST-Panvel fast corridor was first proposed in the 2009-10 Railway Budget. It will be elevated for around 31 km of the route from south Mumbai to Vashi and for next 12.4 km, it will run parallel to the existing lines.

The corridor will also require construction of a 4.3-km bridge over Thane creek.

A senior railway official said, “The Mumbai division of CR has apprised the General Manager of a few big impediments to execute the project.”

Out of the two major hurdles, the first is that during the execution of the infra project, there would be unprecedented megablocks that would throw suburban operations out of track. Also, it would be extremely difficult to construct the stations (on the fast corridor) over the (already existing) stations, he said.

The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, working with the State government which is responsible for improvement of infrastructure of Mumbai suburban railway system, had recently submitted the final plan for the corridor to the Railway Board following six years of deliberations.

A Central Railway spokesperson said, “We are trying to iron out all the issues, because it’s a major infrastructure project that would give a big boost to our transport system.”

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