The project, which the prime
minister’s office is monitoring closely, is clashing with several other
multi-crore projects at Panvel; authorities need to acquire more land to
accommodate the corridor there
A pet project of the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) has become a bone of contention for the railway
authorities. The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), which is being developed to
provide a special network for freight trains, will pass through Panvel where
several other multi-crore projects are also converging: these include the
proposed CST-Panvel fast corridor, upcoming airport at Navi Mumbai, suburban
sections on the Virar-Vasai-Diva-Panvel line and finally, construction of the
Panvel Coaching complex which is meant for carrying out maintenance work of
trains and other amenities.
Platform numbers 3 and 4 on Panvel will be converted into the DFC and four new platforms will be added to run trains to Karjat and Virar. File pic
The western corridor of DFC passes
through Panvel and then proceeds towards Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).
The
other schemes some of which were announced in previous budgets will also be in
and around Panvel station. Sources in railways said that they are worried about
a multitude of schemes clashing with each other. “The alignment of DFC is close
to the proposed suburban fast corridor and the coaching complex. So, we will
need additional land from CIDCO, for which discussions with them are underway,”
said a Central Railway official.
The DFC is being carved out as a
network for container and cargo trains so they can transport goods and
commodities faster, without any passenger trains coming in their way (see box
for details).
Officials explained that the existing railway station at Panvel
would be expanded for the purpose of adding more platforms for the proposed CST-Panvel
fast corridor and Virar-Vasai-Diva-Panvel lines. Apart from this, connectivity
is also planned for the proposed airport coming in Navi Mumbai.
Amidst all this, they will require
extra land for DFC. “We will be needing nearly 36 hectares of land from CIDCO
and several others from other agencies and private parties,” said an official
from Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd, a subsidiary railway
body created to look into the nitty-gritty of the project. As of May, they had
acquired 442 hectares of land, that too only in Maharashtra.
Initially, several villages in the
area had opposed the DFC, fearing loss of land. Gradually, these issues were
taken care of. “We are examining the various projects proposed by the railways.
The meeting regarding the coaching complex also went well and land will be
allotted accordingly,” said a senior official from CIDCO.
Meanwhile, Central Railway has given
an in-principle nod for four new platforms at the Panvel suburban section,
which will be used for Panvel-Virar and Panvel-Karjat routes.
Authorities will
convert the current suburban platform numbers 3 and 4 into the DFC, and build
four additional platforms for running trains to Virar and Karjat.
It is likely
that in the rail budget that will be presented today, the DFC will be allocated
certain amounts of money.
Dedicated Freight Corridor
>> It was proposed under the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012) by the Ministry of Railways, and the PMO is directly overseeing its progress
>> It will transport containers, commodities at a maximum speed of 100 kmph, reducing travel time by one-third
>> The entire 3,300-km dedicated rail corridor is divided into two parts: western and eastern. The western corridor stretches from JNPT to Nhava Sheva, through Panvel, and then goes into neighbouring states
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