The Western Railway Elevated Corridor, also known as the Oval Maidan-Virar elevated corridor, was a proposed rapid transit corridor that would have run along the same alignment as the Western Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway, and link Oval Maidan with Virar.
History
The Western railway elevated corridor was first proposed in the 2007 Railway Budget presented by then Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. The technical feasibility report for the project was prepared by Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) and the French firm Systra. On 23 August 2012, Western Railway (WR) held a planning meeting with potentially interested parties at Churchgate station. The meeting included 20 companies including Reliance infrastructure, Gammon, IL&FS, Essar and GMR. According to Sharat Chandrayan, CPRO of WR, "The road-show was mainly to explain requirements for the project to prospective bidders and to understand their suggestions before bidding takes place". A delay occurred in signing of the State Support Agreement (SSA) between WR and the Government of Maharashtra due to differences of opinion between the State Government, the Planning Commission and the railways on issues related to FSI, land acquisition, shifting of underground utilities and commercial use of land. The SSA is the state's commitment to help Railways in land acquisition, shifting utility services on time and attaining more FSI to help developers generate funds. WR demanded an FSI of five for 13 land parcels across the city, in order to optimise commercial development of its existing plots as major source of funds for the project. However, the state government expressed reservations in granting an FSI up to four, saying that it would permit need-based FSI only. The project is planned to be implemented as a joint public-private partnership (PPP) project of the railways, the state government and private organisation on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.
The project received in-principle approval from Maharashtra government on 9 April 2013. The Maharashtra government sought central funding for the Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor Project, which is aimed to revolutionise suburban commuting in the city. In August 2013, the railway ministry issued new Request For Qualification (RFQ) documents for the project, about a week after withdrawing previously issued RFQ documents. The ministry had withdrawn the documents after realizing that the dispute between the state government and the railways over the signing of the SSA was frightening off potential bidders. Six infrastructure firms – Reliance, Larsen and Toubro, GMR, Gammon, ILFS and CAF Spain – had bought the earlier RFQ document at a cost of ₹1 million (US$16,000) each. The railway ministry announced on 17 September 2013, that the deadline for expressing interest had been extended to 29 November from 20 October. "Unless the agreement with the state government is signed it will be difficult for the project to take off", he said.
The state government clarified it would not permit a higher FSI for the project, and lobbied for its own Mumbai Metro project. The state government opposes the elevated rail corridor project, arguing that the proposed Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro Metro project between Colaba and SEEPZ follows the same route. Following the November meeting, WR commissioned RITES to conduct a study on passenger volume projections if the route were shortened. The state government had suggested that the corridor be terminated at Bandra. The study found that terminating the corridor at Bandra would result in 40% reduction in passenger volume, which would make the project financially unviable.