Dinesh Kamath's news 'CIDCO versus CR' that was published in Newsband

CIDCO versus CR

By Dinesh Kamath

Above CIDCO

Above Central Railway

NAVI MUMBAI: Who is supposed to maintain Seawoods station - CIDCO or Central Railway (CR)?

CR is not willing to take up the maintenance because it does the maintenance of stations all across Mumbai and the suburbs. CR fears that if they agree to take up the maintenance then it will have to take care of all the stations on the new corridor that CIDCO has proposed.

The new station will become functional only after the approval of the commissioner of railway safety. The commissioning will be done soon.

However, the war between CIDCO and CR will only delay the commissioning. It will also delay in beginning the work of developing the new Uran corridor. CIDCO and CR had signed an agreement to develop the rail corridor in the city on a 67:33 cost sharing basis.

CIDCO is also demanding annulling of the earlier agreement of CIDCO maintaining 14 stations on the Mankhurd-Belapur-Panvel corridor and the other arm of the rail link to Airoli. CIDCO had been doing the maintenance work since 1992 when Vashi station was commissioned. Before taking up the maintenance work, both CR and CIDCO had agreed that it would be just a temporary arrangement. Also CIDCO signed a separate agreement with CR to develop the space on top of the stations.

The railways help the infra development in the city, which, in turn, provides connectivity. So both CR and CIDCO should cooperate and arrive at a conclusion which can prove to be just to both.