In an attempt to disperse the overloaded Thane station, the railways are setting up an elevated Kalwa station that will exclusively cater to suburban trains from the trans-harbour Airoli line. The existing Kalwa station will move southwards with two separate station complexes for main line and trans-harbour line. As per the finalised plan in the first phase, the existing platform one at Kalwa will become an island platform with tracks on both sides and the fast trains getting a separate platform. In addition to these four lines, two lines from the Airoli-Kalwa link will have an elevated station and the line will merge with the main line slow track. On the ground, work is almost complete on platforms and land has been levelled for the new fast line tracks as a part of the 5th and 6th line. Once this is ready, the work on the new Airoli corridor will begin, but may take much time as it involves relief and rehabilitation. Once this is done, work on phase two of shifting the station southwards will begin. "The plan is to decongest the existing Thane station. The new proposed link will help commuters that are moving northwards towards Kalyan," Shivaji Sutar, chief public relations officer with Central Railway said. Railway officials intend to complete civil work by April 2020 on the first phase after which there will be trials and tests with the hope of opening the 5th 6th lines by next year. The project, which was sanctioned in 2008, is a part of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP 2B) and is crucial for the Central Railway (CR) as it will be a key factor in segregating the outstation and local train rail corridor and thus improve the speed/frequency of trains. The first deadline was December 2015, which was later revised to December 2017, then to March 2019 and now mid-2019. The cost has escalated from originally about Rs 130 crore to Rs 440 crore. Currently there are six railway lines between Kalyan and Diva and Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and Thane. However, between Thane and Diva there are only four lines, which results in congestion and crossing of outstation trains. Once this is complete, there could be complete segregation of lines used by local and outstation trains between Kurla-LTT and Kalyan, which is important to improve the speed and frequency of suburban trains and make the journey slightly better. Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates

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