Railways to modernise, expand Mumbai’s suburban rail network

Mumbai’s suburban rail network is poised for major expansion and modernisation in line with the proposed spread of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to cover more areas of the mainland as well. Major works related to tracks and rolling stock for capacity enhancement are already underway, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said.

The Railways is taking measures to add new services while also ensuring passenger safety, Vaishnaw said, adding that the procurement of new rakes with automatic door-closing system is underway. It is planned to introduce 238 new trains with automatic door systems in suburban rail network.

Besides, Palghar station of Western Railway is being developed in the lines of Panvel in Central Railway in order to improve passenger traffic. The station will also be provided with additional train stoppages to improve traffic flow.

At present Palghar and Boisar station in Western Railway is served by 104 trains, including 41 mail/express trains, 16 passenger and 42 suburban trains. These two stations connect Mumbai with regions like Bhuj, Sri Ganganagar Ahmedabad, Surat, Porbandar, Bharuch, Veraval, Katra, Okha, Gwalior, Jaipur, Ajmer, Hanumangarh, Lucknow, Bhusaval, Haridwar, Dehradun as well as Mysuru, Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thirunelveli etc, besides connecting Virar with Churchgate.

Vaishnaw also said that the Indian Railways has nearly completed electrification of the network with 99.2 per cent of broad gauge network already electrified. It is now ahead of China which has electrified 82 per cent of its rail network and second only to Switzerlad, which has achieved 100 per cent electrificatio of rail network.

The Railways, which had 21,801 route km of electrified tracks before 2014, the year the Narendra Modi government came to power, has completed electrification of 46,900 route km by June 2025, the minister pointed out.

He attributed the delay in completion of route electrification to factors like forest clearances, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the project site, climatic conditions etc.