Central Railway (CR) has begun work on running 15-car services on between Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus and Kalyan by carrying out extension of the length of platforms.
The work on extending the platform is being carried out at platforms at Byculla, Kurla, Ghatkopar, Bhandup, Mulund and Dombivli stations.
A senior CR official said, "Our target is run as many as 10 services by October 2012. Apart from extending the work on the platform, we also have to undertake modification of yard or relocation of signal, wherever necessary."
Unlike WR, CR has decided to first extend the length of platforms where halts will be provided for 15 -car services. Western Railway (WR) introduced 15-car services rakes on its suburban section in 2009. They halt at all the stations between Borivli and Virar, except Naigaon.
The official explained, "On WR halts for 15-car services at many stations were provided months after the services was introduced. For example, it has not yet provided halt at Naigaon station as the work on extending the length of platform is still under progress."
Fifteen-car services on CR will originate and terminate from CST as well as Kurla, Dadar, Thane and Kalyan. The services will be planned without drastically altering the time-table, he added.
The fifteen car services will be increase the carrying capacity of at least 10 services on CR by 33 per cent when compared with 12-car services.
The number of services on CR is 1,573, including 208 services on the Thane-Vashi-Nerul-Panvel-Trans habour route; 580 services are on the Harbour line, of which 172 operate between CST and Bandra, and CST and Andheri. It has already augmented all its 785 services to 12-car from 9-car.
