By IANS,
Mumbai : Maharashtra and its capital Mumbai were offered a lot of goodies Wednesday by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi in the rail budget for 2012-13.
One of the most important announcements was the preparations for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-III (MUTP-III), for which a
roadmap has been readied to strengthen and augment the crucial suburban rail infrastructure of the country’s commercial capital.
While MUTP-I was completed at a cost of Rs.4,500 crore a few years ago, work on the Rs.5,300 crore MUTP-II is progressing at a fast pace, railway officials said.
Under MUTP-III, a feasibility study would be carried out for constructing faster rail corridors on the Mumbai CST-Panvel (Raigad) and Virar-Vasai-Diva (Thane)-Panvel (Raigad) sections through an innovative financing mechanism.
A study would also be carried out for a Panvel-Navi Mumbai rail link.
The proposed 72-km Virar-Panvel third line in the public-private partnership mode will throw open new avenues for the faster development of northern part of Mumbai and facilitate easier movement of commuters between the eastern and western parts of the island city.
The Mumbai suburban railway system, which moves over eight million commuters daily, is seen as a sound mobilising ground for garnering additional resources through commercial utilization of ground and air space for which the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corp will initiate a pilot project.