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• With little less than a month for the railway budget, city commuter organisations have begun sending their wish list for Mumbai’s seven million rail passengers to the railway ministry.Among the prime demands is segregating the city suburban railway network and converting it into a separate body for better co-ordination and funding pattern.Other demands include improving the Harbour Line, running local trains to Virar, better train services beyond Kalyan and additional rail corridors for better connectivity. Commuter bodies also demanded additional lines and fast trains for Harbour corridor that has become saturated.
• “The railways have backtracked on their Dahanu promise and we want the Western Railway to start local services there in this financial year,” said Shailendra Kamble of the Pravaas Adhikaar Andolan Samiti.The railways should give priority for converting all trains into 12 car and running AC trains for the city. Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi is from Kutch and residents there have high expectations from him,’’ Shailesh Goyal of zonal railway consultative committee said.Subhash Gupta, ex-member of National Railway Users Consultative Committee, said that all the problems will get solved once Mumbai suburban network is separated from the national railways and made independent.
• “The suburban networks of central and western railway should be merged and run as one independent body. This will go a long way in solving many problems, taking decisions locally and also using the money earned from the city to be spent here. Today, the money generated goes to the national kitty,’’ he said.Jagdish Rane, another commuter body member, said the railways should look at better connectivity for Konkan Railway from the WR stations.“KR commuters staying in Borivli and beyond are either forced to go to Dadar or Panvel,’’ he explained.

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