Life of people commuting for work from Karjat towards Panvel, Belapur CBD, Navi Mumbai Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is going to get easier.
The 29.6 route km Panvel -Karjat suburban corridor is 85 per cent complete and is likely to be handed over to Central Railway by July 2026 to commence suburban train operations.
“ We are all set to complete the project by July this year,” says Sunil Udasi, CPRO, Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, the nodal organisation in charge of executing railway projects in and around Mumbai.
Project details
Ancillary facilities that will be built include construction of new platforms at all existing stations, yard at Karjat new suburban terminal, eight EMU rake stabling lines, four at Karjat and four at Poyanje ( earlier called Mohope).
The project is targeted for completion by July 2026. Chainage of the alignment is as follows:
Why is this corridor important?
To commute from Karjat to Panvel and Navi Mumbai road is a challenge for most daily commuters as they have only buses to turn to as a mode of transport.
The existing single railway line connecting Karjat and Panvel has only three pairs of daily trains -12125 /26 Pragati express, 17317 /18 Hubballi – Dadar express 17613 /14 Nanded Panvel express- which is inadequate.
Earlier commuters preferring suburban trains had to travel to Kurla via Kalyan and Thane onwards to Navi Mumbai. This commute was eased once the trans-harbour line linking Thane to Vashi and Nerul was commissioned. However, it reduced the time taken via Kurla only by about 30 minutes. The ordeal still persisted with the focus of the commuter changing local trains shifting from Kurla to Thane.
Finally, the day when the time taken will reduce from about 2 hours and 15 minutes one way ( via Thane) to about 45 minutes is not far away given that CR is likely to commence Panvel-Karjat suburban train operations latest by December 2026.
Third Mumbai
With plans to develop a new city next to Navi Mumbai which was tentatively named NAINA (Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area) in 2013, the Centre firmed up plans to lay the foundation of rail transportation corridor by announcing MUTP -III ( Mumbai Urban Transport Project) .
MUTP-III included, among others, three railway lines in Mumbai metropolitan area namely Panvel-Karjat suburban corridor, Virar- Dahanu Road quadrupling and Airoli-Kalwa elevated corridor.
MUTP- III was included in the 2015-16 Railway Budget and sanctioned by the Union Cabinet on November 30,2016 at a cost of Rs 10947 crore. Of this, Panvel-Karjat suburban corridor’s outlay was Rs 2782 crore.
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) gave its approval to do sovereign funding of USD 500 million for the project on September 26, 2019. The funding was subject to AIIB’s Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) .
MRVC had two options : One was to have the suburban alignment next to existing alignment with one tunnel at Wavarle and two having the new alignment at a distance from existing alignment starting from Chainage 21+300 along with two tunnels at Wavarle and Kirawali.
MRVC chose the second option as it went through scarcely inhabited area causing minimum impact on local residents and landscape.
Land requirement
Land requirement was kept at minimum and particularly, acquisition of private land was avoided. A total of 65.5219 hectares of land was acquired. Of this 57.1477 hectares was privately owned, 3.4665 hectares under government possession and 4.9077 hectares was diverted from the forest department falling under the ambit of Matheran Eco Sensitive Zone.
Matheran Eco-sensitive zone is home to 82 species of trees, 23 species of Shrubs, 31 species of herbs and six species of climbers. In addition,
41 species of birds, one mammal species, nine species of reptiles, seven butterfly species and 24 aquatic animal species.
Benefits
This line offers a new and convenient alternate suburban connectivity for passengers between Panvel and Karjat, reducing travel time. It will improves suburban train frequency to / from Karjat ,reduce traffic congestion and fuel consumption.
The new Panvel terminus along the Kalamboli coaching depot will provide Navi Mumbaikars more trains towards Southern Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Rehabilitation and Resettlement
A total of 417 land owner families, 45 Government Plots and 15 Forest land parcels spread over 24 villages, three talukas Panvel, Khalapur and Karjat in Raigad district of Maharashtra were affected for the requirement of land for the project .
A total of 84 private residential structures, nine government and three community structures, were affected by the project. Besides, there were 96 vulnerable affected families who were rehabilitated and resettled as per extant norms.
Future
The detailed project report (DPR) for doubling the existing single line from Panvel to Karjat has already been sent to Railway Board last year for approval.
The Railway Budget for last year (2025-26) also sanctioned a final location survey for construction three chord lines at Panvel namely Jasai-Karjat, Jasai-Roha and Roha-Karjat totalling 34 km.A sum of Rs 68 lakh was set aside for the survey. Once these chord lines are built, there will be no need to reverse direction of a loco at Panvel reducing detention and streamlining train operations.
