Mumbai : Union railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and CM Vilasrao Deshmukh flagged off the much-awaited Thane-Vashi suburban train service from Koparkhairane station amid a crowd of enthusiastic commuters and onlookers at 5 pm. The new project line will offer connectivity between Thane and Navi Mumbai.  The trains will ply along a 18.5 km route through Vashi, Sanpada, Turbhe, Kopar Khairne, Ghansoli, Rabale and Airoli to reach Thane. The project also aims to connect Thane to Nerul through Turbhe.

This phase of the project should be completed within the a year of its commissioning, stated a Cidco official.  Central Railway officials said that the project's sanctioned cost was Rs 403.39 crore, shared between Railways and CIDCO in the ratio of 2:1. The Navi Mumbai-Thane belt has just acquired four spanking new railway stations as part of the Rs 403 crore Vashi-Turbhe-Thane railway project. The five new stations on the route are Airoli, Rabale, Ghansoli, Koparkhairane and Turbhe. Out of these, Rabale station will be commissioned by the end of next year.

The project is jointly funded by the Central Railways and Cidco. While the stations do not have ornate Victorian arches or cobble-stone pathways, their futuristic design, form, and use of materials is enough to turn heads and make one pause in wonder.

Out of the 47 bridges in the 18.5 km section, six are major and 41 are minor bridges. According to the officials, six pairs of services will run on the section initially. The new project line will also serve the Thane-Belapur industrial zone. The distance via the new route will be shorter by 13 kms.

TIMETABLE : 

VASHI - SANPADA - TURBHE - KOPARKHAIRANE - GHANSOLI - AIROLI - THANE

	TV2	TV4	TV6	TV8	TV10	TV12
VASHI	0640	0820	1000	1610	1750	1930
THANE	0720	0900	1040	1650	1830	2010
	TV1	TV3	TV5	TV7	TV9	TV11
THANE	0730	0910	1050	1700	1840	2020
VASHI	0810	0950	1130	1740	1920	2100

FAST FACTS :

TRAVEL TIME (in minutes)

UP : Thane 0, Airoli 10, Rabale (Will open later), Ghansoli 19, Koparkhairane 23, Turbhe 30, Sanpada 35, Vashi 40

DN : Vashi 0, Sanpada 04, Turbhe 09, Koparkhairane 16, Ghansoli 20, Rabale (Will open later) Airoli 29, Thane 40

DISTANCE FROM MUMBAI CST (Via Thane) in kms.

Thane 34, Airoli 39, Rabale (Will open later), Ghansoli 44, Koparkhairane 46, Turbhe 49, Sanpada 51, Vashi 52

FARES - II Class Ordinary from Thane in Rs.

Airoli 7, Rabale, Ghansoli & Koparkhairane 9, Turbhe 10, Sanpada & Vashi 11

ILLUSTRATION OF BENEFITS :

Lets say I'm at Thane Station at 0900 and wish to proceed to Vashi, Belapur or Panvel. Asssume that it will take me a maximum of 5 mins to book my ticket, and the earliest train I can take from Thane is at 0910.

1. Thane(TNA) - Sanpada - Vashi/Belapur/Panvel(PL)
     Note : The First codes are trains numbers.

TV3 Dep TNA 0910 Arr SANPADA 0945 VASHI 0950
PL33 Dep Sanpada 0948 Arr Belapur 1000 & Panvel 1014

Time to reach Vashi = 40 mins
Fare to reach Vashi (18 kms)
(FARE 8 + MUTP 1 + CIDCO 2) = Rs. 11 TOTAL

With TV3+PL33

TIME to Belapur = (35 + 3 + 12 = 40 mins)
TIME to Panvel = (35 + 3 + 12 + 14 = 54 mins)

2. Thane - Kurla(CLA) - Vashi/Belapur/Panvel

T54 Dep TNA 0910 Arr CLA 0938 (SLOW)
S20 Dep TNA 0912 Arr CLA 0931 (FAST)
V09 Dep CLA 0935 VSH 0955
PL36 Dep CLA 0940 VSH 0959 BEPR 1013 PNVL 1027

Fastest to Vashi S20+V09 (19 + 4 + 20 = 43 mins)
Fare to reach Vashi = 32 kms (FARE 8 + MUTP 1 + CIDCO 1.5) = Rs. 10.50 TOTAL

With S20+PL36
TIME to Belapur = (19 + 9 + 33 = 61 mins)
TIME to Panvel = (19 + 9 + 47 = 75 mins)

ADDITIONAL POINTS :

a. Travelling the present system requires negotiating the commuter rush at least in one direction. In this case Thane to Kurla experiences real rush. Also the morning rush between Kurla and New Mumbai (Vashi-Sanpada) have certain loads too. A real benefit is the lower rush that the commuter has to negotiate on the Kurla - Thane & Thane - Vashi line.

b. Allowing a minimum of 02 minutes to connect. In larger stations this could take longer since crowds and platforms are far apart.

c. Based on distance and the fact that the line is new, the trains are expecetd to be sppeded up and running time decrease in the near future.

d. This example is only illustrative. Connections could be missed on account of late running of first train. Connection & Waiting time for connnecting train colud also vary.

e. New Stations like Turbhe, Koparkhairane & Airoli are connected with this route

More News ...

The CIDCO surcharge on fares of the Thane-Turbhe line will be higher than those on the harbour line.

According to sources, while commuters currently pay a 50 paise surcharge on the harbour line, they will be paying Rs 1.50 surcharge on the new line.

Central Railway PRO Sunil Jain. The train schedules were decided after a thorough study of passenger requirements and traffic, he explains. ‘‘If the need (for more trains) is found to be strong after two or three months, we can implement changes,’’ he assures.

Central Railway PRO YK Singh says, “For the first one or two months, the railways will run just 12 services a day — three from Vashi in the morning, three from Thane in the morning and similarly three each from Vashi and Thane in the evenings too.”