The Belapur-Seawoods Uran railway is still not on track after 18 years; phase I of the project - Nerul to Kharkopar - was commissioned in 2018
The project has a fresh deadline of March 2022, with allied works expected to be complete by March 2025.
The Belapur-Seawoods Uran suburban railway being built by the Central Railway and the City Industrial Development Corporation Limited (CIDCO), has the distinction of being the most delayed railway project in Maharashtra. It has a time run over of 216 months that is 18 years as per the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. The project cost has risen from the original Rs 495.44 crore to R 2,980.41 crore of which Rs 1,768.25 has been the expenditure so far.
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The infrastructure and project monitoring division of the union ministry of statistics and programme implementation monitors central sector projects costing more than Rs 150 crore in 16 sectors. The latest update in February and that in the quarterly update of December 2020 states that the project now has a fresh deadline of March 2022, with allied works expected to be complete by March 2025.
The date of approval of the project was March 1996 with an original deadline of March 2004. However, it has run into several hurdles due to land acquisition and other issues leading to the delay.
A new deadline
The project implementation status report for the quarter ending October-December 2020, a copy of which is with mid-day, states that phase I of the project was commissioned on November 11, 2018. But in phase-II between Kharkopar and Uran (14.6 km), land admeasuring 4.067 hectares of forest and 0.412 hectares of private land in a 3 km stretch is to be acquired by CIDCO, as per tripartite agreement. Further, there are six more infringements. The section between Kharkopar and Uran (phase 2) can be commissioned by March 2022 subject to availability of land by CIDCO by March 2021. Other allied works like construction of quarters, shed work which are chargeable to project estimate will be completed by March 2025.
One-third cost of the project is borne by the Railways and two thirds by CIDCO at 67:33. Once the line is ready, it should be able to take commuters from CSMT in on an average of one hour 45 minutes. The existing freight line to Uran is about 95.10 km from Mumbai CSMT and the new line will cut the distance by nearly half.
Officials speak
Of the 27-km stretch, about 12-km till Kharkopar has is ready and operational with suburban trains. "A total of 27 km land has been handed over to CR, except forest land which is less than 1 km (4.067 hectares) for which the approval of the forest department has not yet been received. CIDCO has commenced the operation of trains for phase I upto Kharkopar. The remaining phase II, 15 km work is undertaken by CR, including construction of five stations from Kharkopar to Uran," a senior CIDCO official said.
"The work on about 11kms of a stretch in Phase II of the Kharkopar-Uran line is in advanced stage. We are co-ordinating with the forest department and CIDCO for acquisition of the remaining 3kms land to complete the Phase II work as early as possible," Central Railway Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said.
Rs 495.44cr
Original cost of the entire project
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