Due to the heavy congestion of the 10.8 km-long Thane–Kalyan stretch, the Central Railway (CR) is required to consider fresh plans aimed at expanding track capacity on one of Mumbai’s busiest suburban corridors. The issue is one of CR's biggest operational challenges, with nearly 1,000 trains passing through this section every day. Along with this, other stations, such as Kalyan, Diva, and Thane, act as major interchange hubs for lakhs of commuters.
7th and 8th rail lines
In order to address these bottlenecks, the Hindustan Times reports that the Central Railways has started studies aimed at laying the 7th and 8th rail lines on the Kalyan–Thane–Parel corridor. Additionally, underground alignments in parts of Dombivli are also being kept under the scheme of things.
The appointment of a third-party agency has been made to conduct a final location survey (FLS), which emerges as a crucial step to determine the exact alignment, along with engineering details of the proposed tracks.
A CR official says, “It has been a few weeks since FLS studies began,” adding, “We are in the first phase, looking at the new rail lines to come up on the Kalyan-Thane corridor, which is heavily congested.”
1.2 to 1.5 million passengers commute on a daily basis
As Mumbai’s metropolitan region continues to expand, the need for expansion is extremely acute. According to some estimates, a total of approximately 1.2 to 1.5 million passengers commute on a daily basis along the Thane–Kalyan route.
Notably, Diva has emerged as a pressure point, as 70–75 per cent of the 894 daily local services make halts there. Given frequent train stoppages, repeated closures of the Diva level crossing, which disrupts both rail and road traffic, have become a common phenomenon.
Another CR official was quoted as saying, “There are a few stretches, especially before and after Dombivli, where we are examining the possibility of going underground. All of these will be clear in the FLS study, which we expect to be ready by mid-2026.”
The proposed lines form part of a broader strategy to separate suburban and long-distance rail traffic, aligned with the planned expansion of Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and the development of a new terminus at Parel.
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