Commuters on the mainline may get some relief after the project for the new terminus between Mulund and Thane gains momentum. The project has got a push after the Central Railway (CR) officials met those of Thane Municipal Corporation , who have agreed to provide seven out of the 13 hectares of land belonging to Thane Mental Hospital.
The project has been delayed by 15 years, but CR officials said they are hopeful that work would start within the next six months. An official, on the condition of anonymity, revealed that talks over the past two-months have resulted in this positive development. “For the past two months things had progressed at a healthy rate with the TMC who have understood the need for the terminus. Thane Mental Hospital has some peripheral land and land which has seen low patient-occupation rate. So they have agreed to give seven hectares instead of the 10 that we had had proposed almost 15 years ago,” said the official. Thane terminus will have parking space for rakes and will also have halts for slow trains towards CST and Kalyan, clearing some space for the 5th line which is being built for the goods and passenger trains. “This will be of huge relief as Thane and even Kalyan face chock-a-block situations as it has deals with traffic from Karjat, Kasara and Trans-Harbour. So, an additional slow line will improve the punctuality of the line,” said the official.
Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu in his visit to last week, had also mentioned the terminus. He had said, “Thane terminus issues have almost been resolved and it will be the primary example of a world-class station.”
CR has also proposed a railway terminus to be created further from Thane at Thakurli station, using the land of the defunct Thakurli power plant. The terminus would cater exclusively for long distance trains.
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