Mumbai: Steel girders being placed for Kurla elevated station

Construction of the Kurla elevated railway station has been inching ahead with the Central Railway CR beginning to put steel girders in place The ambitious project seeks to decongest the existing Kurla station and segregate rail traffic After much delay the girders have arrived and are being assembled and placed at the sharp curve near level crossing gate 9A The massive steelwork will bear two lines and the elevated Kurla harbour line stationldquoIt is massive work Many steel girders have arrived at the site and are being assembled day and night As they get ready the frames will be raised and placed on pillars Work is mostly being done rapidly now at the Tilak Nagar end of Kurla stationrdquo an official at the site saidSalient featuresThe elevated station will have three platforms one for Kurlaterminating trains one for CSMTbound ones and one for Panvelbound ones a layout similar to that of Parel terminus Once it is ready there will be PanvelKurla services akin to the ones operated from platform 9 and 10 at Kurla Starting from CSMTend the elevated railway rises a few metres after Chunabhatti station as the train moves towards Kurla station and enters the new elevated station It lands just before the Santacruz Chembur Link Road overbridge on the harbour line near Tilak Nagar station The Metro Yellow Line 2B also passes near the stretchPurpose of projectThe elevated station is being built to bypass the existing harbour line platforms which will be demolished to construct the fifth and sixth lines The fifth and sixth line work in is progress between Kurla and Parel with the land acquisition process at Swadeshi Mill a private plot and Dharavi underway in close coordination with the state authorities The reconstruction of the Sion roadover bridge that had been blocked by former Member of Parliament Rahul Shewale is also a part of this projectAs per an earlier update from Railways out of 10061 sq m of land to be acquired approval has been obtained for 2656 sq m of National Textile Corporation NTC land and it is in the process of being transferred to Railways The remaining land acquisition is at various stages of progress The latest acquisition details remained unavailablemidday was the first to report about the Rs 125 crore elevated harbour line station in October 2017 The project will involve the construction of a 1120metre 59span bridge linked to a central skywalk which will be connected to all other foot overbridgesUnique benefitsOnce complete the project will help in segregating outstation and local trains on the existing main line and also bypass the freight trains crossing over the harbour line at Kurla station Every time a freight train from the Rashtriya Chemicals amp Fertilisers RCF bypass passes harbour locals are detained as they share the same tracks This results in frequent delays and crowding on platforms Once the line rises up this too will stop and both trains can continue on their journeys without hampering each other