Grant Road station to be upgraded to terminus

Western Railway (WR) has come up with a plan to ease overcrowding at stations, especially Churchgate, and increase suburban services to and from south Mumbai. It has proposed to the Union ministry of railways that Grant Road station be expanded and used as a terminus. With an increase in commuters and peak-hour traffic now extending even to non-peak hours, WR has come up with the Grant Road proposal because Churchgate station cannot be expanded. During peak hours—8 am to 9.30 am and 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm—WR has a train originating from Churchgate every two minutes. “There is a demand for more services from Churchgate station itself, but unfortunately there’s no room for expansion there. At any given time we can have six trains at Churchgate—four at the platforms and two on the stabling lines between Marine Lines and Churchgate.Grant Road station is the only place where we have some room for expansion,’’ said WR chief PRO S S Gupta. The plan is that three years from now, there will be two new platforms, each with its own track, and a stabling line (a track for a standby rake) at Grant Road.