As a fresh suburban local train corridor between Panvel and Karjat gets ready for opening this financial year, Central Railway (CR) timetabled services to be tentatively run on the 29.6 km corridor, keeping three rakes for the new corridor

The corridor that connects two old townships via a fresh alignment has the suburban system's longest tunnels and bridges

The existing old line caters to goods and a few long-distance passenger trains, while the new double-line corridor will enable local trains to run between Mumbai to Karjat via Panvel

The entire line has three tunnels, two rail flyovers, 44 major and minor bridges, 15 road under-bridges and seven road over-bridges

The three tunnels (total: 3,164 m) include i.e. Tunnel-1 (Nadhal tunnel) of 219 m, Tunnel-2 (Wavarle tunnel) of 2,625 m and Tunnel-3 (Kirawali tunnel) of 320 m of which Wavarle is the longest of all on the Mumbai suburban railway

All three tunnels are complete and track laying has now started

A CR spokesperson said, “As far as the operation of local trains is concerned, it is a 29.6 km corridor with three stations midway between Panvel and Karjat namely, Chikhli, Mohape and Chowk and given the distance and travel time, it should take about an hour to cover the journey"

"We have timetabled and reserved about three 12-car local rakes which will ply on the corridor seamlessly throughout the day. It will be an independent corridor and once it starts, we can assess the adjustment of suburban services till Karjat. We are hoping that a significant number of passengers may shift to the new line. It will save more than 15 minutes,” he added

As per  Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), it is making substantial progress in the construction of the new Panvel-Karjat suburban railway corridor, a crucial double-line project aimed at enhancing suburban rail connectivity on Central Railway

"The project, sanctioned at a cost of R2,782 crore, has reached 70 per cent physical progress, marking a major milestone in its execution,” it said