Mumbai: Steel girders being placed for Kurla elevated station

The site of the ambitious elevated Kurla station project, being built to bypass existing harbour line platforms

Construction of the Kurla elevated railway station has been inching ahead with the Central Railway (CR) beginning to put steel girders in place. The ambitious project seeks to decongest the existing Kurla station and segregate rail traffic. After much delay, the girders have arrived and are being assembled and placed at the sharp curve near level crossing gate 9A. The massive steelwork will bear two lines and the elevated Kurla harbour line station.

"It is massive work. Many steel girders have arrived at the site and are being assembled day and night. As they get ready, the frames will be raised and placed on pillars. Work is mostly being done rapidly now at the Tilak Nagar end of Kurla station," an official at the site said.

Salient features

The elevated station will have three platforms, one for Kurla-terminating trains, one for CSMT-bound ones and one for Panvel-bound ones, a layout similar to that of Parel terminus. Once it is ready, there will be Panvel-Kurla services akin to the ones operated from platform 9 and 10 at Kurla. Starting from CSMT-end, the elevated railway rises a few metres after Chunabhatti station as the train moves towards Kurla station and enters the new elevated station. It lands just before the Santacruz Chembur Link Road overbridge on the harbour line near Tilak Nagar station. The Metro Yellow Line 2B also passes near the stretch.

Purpose of project

The elevated station is being built to bypass the existing harbour line platforms which will be demolished to construct the fifth and sixth lines. The fifth and sixth line work in is progress between Kurla and Parel with the land acquisition process at Swadeshi Mill, a private plot and Dharavi underway in close coordination with the state authorities. The reconstruction of the Sion roadover bridge that had been blocked by former Member of Parliament Rahul Shewale is also a part of this project.

As per an earlier update from Railways, out of 10,061 sq m of land to be acquired, approval has been obtained for 2,656 sq m of National Textile Corporation (NTC) land and it is in the process of being transferred to Railways. The remaining land acquisition is at various stages of progress. The latest acquisition details remained unavailable.

mid-day was the first to report about the Rs 125 crore elevated harbour line station in October 2017. The project will involve the construction of a 1,120-metre, 59-span bridge linked to a central skywalk, which will be connected to all other foot overbridges.

Unique benefits

Once complete, the project will help in segregating outstation and local trains on the existing main line and also bypass the freight trains crossing over the harbour line at Kurla station. Every time a freight train from the Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers (RCF) bypass passes, harbour locals are detained, as they share the same tracks. This results in frequent delays and crowding on platforms. Once the line rises up, this too will stop and both trains can continue on their journeys without hampering each other.