Blueprint to turn Kurla into premier rail hub

Elevated high-speed rail lines, metro lines, a much-delayed link road flyover and an elevated platform deck are all to come up at Kurla over the next decade

    Central Railway has prepared a new blueprint for Kurla station. The reason being that, over the next decade, it is this station that will see more construction in its vicinity - both on the ground as well as at an elevated level - than any other station in the city, or even the country for that matter. 
    At various levels, from 7 metres to 22 metres - equivalent to a six-storey building - construction of elevated high-speed rail lines, metro lines, a much-delayed link road flyover, and an elevated railway deck is to be carried out. 
    Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, CR General Manager Subodh Jain agreed that Kurla's position has made it the focal point of the miscellaneous activities. "Kurla has the potential to become the city's premier rail hub. It is close toKurla Terminus and will be part of the proposed elevated lines, besides the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd metro line two. The Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road will also be important for Kurla," Jain said. 
    Currently, the foot-overbridges stand 7 metres above ground. The elevated CST-Panvel rail line will come up between 11 metres and 22 metres above the tracks, as also the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd metro line two. 
    The second elevated line - CST to Kalyan - will also come up within this height band on the western stretch of the tracks. On the eastern side, the CST-Panvel elevated line will come up close to the Harbour lines. 
    While the elevated railway and metro lines could take a decade, what CR needs to do more urgently is to tweak the current two Harbour line tracks to make them part of the fifth and sixth Main line tracks. These are crucial to enable longdistance trains roll out of CST and Dadar without disturbing the suburban system. 
    Right now, the fifth and sixth lines run from Vidyavihar to Thane, but the next phase will see them extended fromKurla to CST, or at least till the planned Parel Terminus, in case land acquisition between Parel and CST turns a tricky proposition. 
    "The two Harbour tracks come towards Kurla as a curve on the east. The fifth and sixth lines between Thane and Vidyavihar are also on east. The plan is to disconnect the Harbour tracks in such a way that they automatically become the connection between the fifth and sixth lines coming from Vidyavihar and those lines that will come up from CST to Sion," explained an official. 
    Once this stretch of the Harbour tracks are disconnected, CR will need to build an elevated deck above the current Harbour platforms - No 6 and No 7. This means that Harbour locals will begin ascending the elevated deck somewhere after Chunabhati station, halt at elevated Kurla platforms, and then descend to ground level before reaching Tilak Nagar station, the official said. 
    "All this will call for a tremendous amount of work, that's why a fresh blueprint for Kurla was required," the official added.

Kurla station will see more construction in its vicinity, on ground and elevated level (r) The revised plan for the Metro line