Harbor Line passengers in Mumbai will have to face problems for 22 days as trains will be canceled at Panvel station. Work is going on for the dedicated freight corridor till JNPT. For this, two tracks are also passing through Panvel. The work on these tracks started on August 18 and a block of about 3 hours was being taken every night. Now some cut and connection work will be done at Panvel Yard, due to which the duration of the block is being increased to 5 hours at night. Due to this block, the last night local from CSMT to Panvel will be at 10:58 pm. After this, Panvel trains will be stopped at Belapur only.
About 70 percent of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor has been completed, but work has now started on 30 percent of Maharashtra. According to Central Railway, two tracks are being built for DFC at Panvel station, for which a block of 45 days has been taken. Blocks for the first phase have been done, now blocks will be taken in the second phase till October 2. The block will be from 11:30 am to 5 am. Some local services will remain canceled during the block period. From Monday, the last local from CSMT to Panvel will be at 22:58. After this, local from CSMT to Panvel will run at 23:30 hrs, 23:52 hrs, 00:13 hrs and 00:40 hrs till Belapur. The last local on Down Trans Harbor Line from Thane to Panvel will be at 23:32.
Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) is going to play a key role in increasing the speed of long distance trains. DFC work is being done at a very fast pace so that there is an independent corridor for goods trains. The main 109 km stretch of the 1506 km long corridor from JNPT to Dadri is being prepared from Vaitarna to JNPT. This corridor will pass through Panvel station, hence construction work of two lines (up-down) for DFC is going on at Panvel station.