Mumbai: Redrawing Western Railway map for the first time in 160 years

As the Western Railway WR tracks are being quadrupled between Virar and Dahanu the lines along a few stretches are being realigned from the original pathway laid in the 1860s to sync with the new lines and upgrade them The historic work is being done with a mix of novel engineering and advanced technology The sheer scale of works that involves building an entire new corridor is tremendous and is expected to be complete by December 2026 As of June 2024 29 per cent work has been completedViatarna bridge PicsSaurabh RautWR is increasing the speed of the trains to 160 kmph and the older bridges are unfit to carry trains at such higher speeds Hence as a part of the VirarDahanu line the railways is building new creek bridges along the stretch with all four lines together Bridge 92 at the southend of Vaitarna river is one such bridge where a unique technique has been adopted for constructionldquoBuilding lines over the Wadhiv island and the Vaitarna has been tricky With no approach road along the river and the island over which the rail alignment passes construction engineers have devised a novel method to take the construction debris around the island in a small rail trolley loaded with trucks to fill in landrdquo said Arun Kumar Deputy Chief Project Manager Civil overseeing the bridge constructionViatarna bridge PicsSaurabh RautldquoDue to the unavailability of access to Wadhiv island the transportation of materials on the west side of the existing railway bridge was difficult The Dedicated Freight Corridor DFC bridge that was constructed adjoining the work has been fitted with rails but is not in use yet Hence we decided to place lorries on a rail trolley rollonrolloff trolley for transportation of materials using the newly constructed DFC upline trackrdquo he explainedAccording to the official the selfpropelled 135tonne trolley with a capacity of 50 tonnes is suitable to run on a straight track having a gradient of 3 per cent ldquoThe trolley is fitted with four motors each having 37Kw of power It is also fitted with four electromagnetic disc brakes So far we have successfully transported approximately 2225 cubic metres of concrete for construction of piles and pile caps While 25000 cubic metres of earthwork has been carried outrdquo he addedThere are two bridges bridge 92 at the southend and 93 at the northern end While work on bridge 92 is 55 per cent complete bridge 93 work is 4 per cent complete ldquoWestern Railway dubbed as the lsquoline of prosperityrsquo as it historically since the 1860s built new cities and spread prosperity to the areas that it passed through is now getting an upgrade All the permissions are in place and work has been going on at a rapid pace We are building the new lines of prosperityrdquo said Subhash Chand Gupta chairman and managing director of Mumbai Rail Vikas CorporationMore trains to Ahmedabad halts neededWith the condition of MumbaiAhmedabad highway in a pitiable state commuter organisations have appealed to railway authorities to increase frequency of VirarDahanu trains and provide a halt for express trains at Palghar the district headquarters ldquoWe have suggested increasing the frequency of Dahanu local trains during peak hours in both directions This would greatly benefit the thousands of passengers who rely on this route for their daily commute Additionally I request Dahanu local trains not be kept in the loop ensuring a smoother and more efficient travel experience for all We have also suggested giving outstation trains a halt at Palgharrdquo said Prathamesh Prabhutendolkar of the Dahanu Vaitarna Pravasi Sevabhavi Sanstha