Commuters travelling on Mumbai’s over-crowded suburban rail system, the city’s lifeline, will heave a sigh of relief following the Budget announcement that it would be expanded to add 90 km of double-line tracks at a cost of over ₹11,000 crore.

An additional 150 km of suburban network is being planned at a cost of over ₹40,000 crore, including elevated corridors on some sections, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He did not indicate the time-line for completion of these projects.

Spread over 465 km , the suburban railway operates 2,342 train services and carries over 7.5 million commuters daily. By annual ridership (2.64 billion), the Mumbai suburban railway is one of the busiest commuter rail systems in the world.

To cater to passenger growth, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd has started work on the ₹23,136-crore, 33.5 km-long Colaba–Bandra-SEEPZ line, the first underground metro line in Mumbai.

When completed, the standard gauge metro line will connect the Cuffe Parade business district in the city’s extreme south to SEEPZ in the north-central with 26 underground and one at-grade station. It is expected to reduce road congestion, besides reducing the load on the western line between Bandra and Churchgate.

In Bengaluru, a suburban network of approximately 160 km is being planned at an estimated cost of ₹17,000 crore to cater to the growth of the metropolis, Jaitley said.

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