Soon, residents of Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan may not have to travel to Dadar or Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla to catch a south-bound train. Naranbhai Rathwa, the minister of state for railways, on Monday said the Railway Board is seriously considering a proposal to upgrade the Panvel station into a terminus, which could be used start or terminate trains heading southwardly {Central Railway (CR} has already submitted a detailed proposal on upgrading Panvel into a terminus. Rathwa said at a function held to flag off 11 new services from Panvel to Andheri and Wadala it is being seriously considered by railway officials.

The plan to upgrade Panvel into a terminus does seem feasible for starting and terminating some of the southbound trains," he said. Officials said the idea is to start some of the existing trains to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala from Panvel instead of CST or Kurla.

So, travelers will have the option to board the trains to the south from either Panvel or Kurla, getting rid of the need to travel across the city to CST," said the official.

Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, thanked the railways for starting new services from Panvel, "Now the harbour line will have 171 services instead of 160. More services need to be added, but this addition should definitely help commuters," he said. Praising the Cidco for the upscale modernization of Panvel station, Deshmukh said the state is doing its duty through its autonomous corporations. "If state controlled Cidco had not spent Rs 30 crore on Panvel’s modernization, additional services would not have been possible for another 10 years. This shows the importance of working together," said Deshmukh.

The CM said all the additional services and new trains were becoming a reality due to investments made in the MUTP "The state and railways have contributed an equal amount, 50% each, to fund- important railway projects in the city Now that MUTP-I is coming to fruition, it is time to start planning for the next phase of MUTP he said. Deshmukh was pleased that the Panvel-Karjat section has been finally opened to commuters. The CR started running the Pune-Nashik train through the Karjat-Panvel section since April 1.