Mumbai: Expansion of railway lines across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) — which officials say and experts agree is imperative to decongest local trains — will eat into a significant amount of green cover in the region, show publicly available documents.
As per a proposal pending with the state forest department, the construction of a third railway line between Kalyan and Kasara in the Thane district will eat into over 17 hectares of notified forest land — more than one-and-a-half times the size of Azad Maidan. The railway line is expected to be operational by March 2025.
Confirming the same, DD Lolge, deputy engineer with the Central Railway, said, “At present, two lines are running between Kalyan and Kasara, which falls under the ‘Mumbai’ division of the Central Railway.
