The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC), the infrastructure-planning body of Mumbai suburban locals trains, is awaiting the results of the state Assembly polls for the sake of the vital Virar-Vasai-Panvel corridor, as the government under former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was opposed to the project. Mr Chavan and his advisors wanted to push a multi-modal corridor with Metro and a new road in the section instead.
MRVC, which had submitted the initial proposal to the state government twice — with the most recent submission in January of this year, was told that the state would prefer the Metro transport mode instead. A MRVC official, on condition of anonymity, said, “We told the state government in our meetings that we already had one train running from Virar to Panvel via Virar and that we gave them a rough proposal in which our engineers had charted out the railway line. But they told us that the government wants to push the Metro in that section as well as a road instead.”
MRVC is of the opinion that the delay would have been justified had the state government got a proposal for the Metro and the road from another body, but no such proposal other than MRVC’s exists. “They were still convincing private players to think about building a Metro in this corridor. So basically neither MRVC nor any other firm is building anything to connect these important suburbs,” he said.
After the results are out, the MRVC officials will present the proposal for the third time to convince the new state government about the need for the project. “Hopefully the new government might be positive about the project,” said the official.
MRVC, which had submitted the initial proposal to the state government twice — with the most recent submission in January of this year, was told that the state would prefer the Metro transport mode instead. A MRVC official, on condition of anonymity, said, “We told the state government in our meetings that we already had one train running from Virar to Panvel via Virar and that we gave them a rough proposal in which our engineers had charted out the railway line. But they told us that the government wants to push the Metro in that section as well as a road instead.”
MRVC is of the opinion that the delay would have been justified had the state government got a proposal for the Metro and the road from another body, but no such proposal other than MRVC’s exists. “They were still convincing private players to think about building a Metro in this corridor. So basically neither MRVC nor any other firm is building anything to connect these important suburbs,” he said.
After the results are out, the MRVC officials will present the proposal for the third time to convince the new state government about the need for the project. “Hopefully the new government might be positive about the project,” said the official.
