There is good news for the 12 lakh odd commuters on the Harbour line as travel time between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and Panvel will come down. The Central Railway (CR) will soon increase speed of trains on this line that connects Mumbai with Navi Mumbai. The CR authorities are working towards increasing the speed of trains from 80kmph to 105kmph. "We have prepared a proposal for increasing the speed to 105kmph between Mankhurd and Panvel stations. We are awaiting further permissions," said SK Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), Central Railway.

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The increase of 25kmph would mean that the commuters will reach their destinations faster under normal conditions. At present, it takes 1 hour and 15-20 minutes to travel from CSMT to Panvel. When the speed rises, it will come down to just over an hour. The CR authorities said that there is scope of improving the infrastructure only between Mankhurd and Panvel as distance between the two stations are more. However, it isn't the case on the Mankhurd-CSMT stretch not just because of lesser distance between stations but also due to encroachments along the tracks, garbage dumped beside them and drainage lines.

Currently, there are 614 services on the CSMT-Panvel/Goregaon corridor that plies daily. Out of these, 104 services ply on CSMT-Andheri section, which also includes the 42 services that have been extended till Goregaon from April 1. The CR officials said that initially they thought of extending all 18 services on Panvel-Andheri to Goregaon. However, now they will wait till monsoon and then extend them.

By Shashank Rao

(Source: DNA)