Demand met; soon a new station between Badlapur-Ambernath

As per the latest figures provided by the Central Railway, the daily footfall at Badlapur is 2.08 lakh while it’s 1.52 lakh at Ambernath station.

Mumbai: The long pending demand for a new station called Chikhloli on the Kalyan - Badlapur route finally got a go-ahead on Wednesday. Railway passengers have been demanding this station for the past 8 years owing to the heavy footfall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

As per the latest figures provided by the Central Railway, the daily footfall at Badlapur is 2.08 lakh while it’s 1.52 lakh at Ambernath station.

“We have been demanding this railway station for almost a decade. After sending several letters and discussions with the railways, we are glad that this station is finally coming up. It’s a struggle for people residing in societies there who are forced to travel 3-5 km to reach either Badlapur or Ambernath,” said Shailesh Raut, who heads the Kalyan Kasara Karjat Railway Passengers Association.

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation has proposed to build this station between Badlapur and Ambernath stations at a cost of ₹82 crore. An official from MRVC said that they have called tenders for the work of constructing this new Chikhloli railway station. They expect this station to come up in 2 years from the day of starting work.

Sources said that this work has been taken up as part of adding the 3-4 rail lines between Kalyan and Badlapur stations at a cost of ₹1510 crore. This lines will segregate long distance and suburban trains. The MRVC will open tender bids by last week of November.

Local residents are also happy with this decision as the residential societies of 7 storey and above have come up here but they have to travel far for the same. People take 20-30 minutes to travel one way and once this station comes up the time taken will come down to 5-7 minutes.

“It takes ₹20-25 per seat in shared autos that we have to take to reach Badlapur or Ambernath station. The Chikhloli station will be barely 300-500 meters from the residential hub here. We have been following up with the railway administration for almost a decade now asking them to construct this station,” said Anup Mehtre, local resident there who travels to Vikhroli everyday.

The surveying work was carried out for the proposed station in 2020. Railway officials said that initially there were issues of getting funds from the state government for this project. The construction of the station received a nod from the ministry of railways in 2019 under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project 3A.

As per commercial records, the station is to come up 64.17 km from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). It will be located 4.34 km from Ambernath station and 3.1 km from Badlapur station.

The first proposal for this railway station was made in 2014. After the railway board failed to respond to the 2014 proposal, a new one was sent in 2017. In December 2020, the railway ministry approved the new station in Chikhloli and also planned to complete the work by 2023.