The state government is keen on developing the hi-speed Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, which aims at cutting travel time between the two cities.
In a meeting with chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday, Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal informed chief minister Prithviraj Chavan that the hi-speed Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor has been proposed so that trains would run at the speed of 200 km per hour, 70 kmph more than the maximum speed of a Rajdhani.
As per the plan, a major portion of the corridor will be in Gujarat; and the state government believes that the corridor should be linked to the proposed Navi Mumbai airport and also with Wadala. Sources said that CM has asked the railway board to make a presentation on the project.
An exponential growth in passenger rush has been witnessed bet-ween Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
The Railway authorities also informed the CM that it has tweaked the alignment of the Churchgate-Virar elevated corridor and decided to go further underground by 8.5 km between Bandra Terminus and Jogeshwari, to save legitimate structures.
The project will be made at a cost of `21,000 crore and is expected to be completed by 2019.
In addition, the state government has requested the Railway authorities to permit a feasibility study for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Kalyan elevated corridor project.
The elevated corridors are being planned as the suburban section is saturated and when finished, fully air-conditioned local trains are likely to ply on this corridor.