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The Railway Minister on Wednesday announced a slew of railway projects for Mumbai. However, experts believe the projects are woefully inadequate.
Railways would be developing a coaching complex at Panvel and a coach maintenance unit at Kalamboli in partnership with the State government. They also propose to connect Navi Mumbai airport with Thane city.
Panvel, Kalamboli and Thane are on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Mr Vishwas Udgirkar, Senior Director with Deloitte said the newly announced projects are of long gestation and there is no clarity as how they would be funded.
He pointed out that the proposed railway project to connect Navi Mumbai airport with Thane city may not take off as the main airport project itself was still on the drawing board.
Projects such as the Churchgate to Virar elevated corridor, which Railways is planning to build on public private partnership (PPP) model, will take not off unless very innovative PPP models with long concession period are devised by the railways, Mr Udgirkar observed.
Transport expert Mr Sudhir Badami is of the opinion that the elevated corridor project would be tough to implement as Churchgate to Virar is a very busy route and it will offer only a four hour window at night to carry out the civil work.
“How will you erect 2-meter columns in the corridor? When the numerous rail tracks criss-cross the route network,” Mr Badami asked.
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