In a significant development, six new railway stations will be added to the Mumbai local network as they approach final stages of completion, informs Central Railway, as per a report by Mid-day.

These include five stations on the new extension between Uran and Belapur, namely — Gavhanpada, Ranjanpada, Nhava-Sheva, Dronagiri and Uran.

Additionally, Dighe station will also start operations on the Thane-Vashi corridor.

Dighe station is part of the elevated corridor planned between Airoli and Kalwa to connect the Navi Mumbai trans-harbour line to the main line.

The station is located along the trans-harbour line just adjacent to the point where the Thane Belapur Road crosses over the Thane-Vashi line, as per the report.

With these new additions, the Central Railway will have 86 stations in its network. Along with the Western Railway’s total stations at 37, the total number of local train stations in Mumbai will now go up to 123.

For the newly developed Uran railway corridor, the commissioner of rail safety (CRS) inspections are under process along with the final railway trials.

As per a senior divisional engineer, “The last inspection by the CRS was done on 11 March, and it is expected to deem the line fit for traffic soon”.

The total length of the proposed connectivity is 26.7 km, which has been executed in two phases.

The first phase of this project spanning 12.4 km between Nerul/Belapur and Kharkopar, was opened to passengers in November 2018.

While the remaining stretch of 14.3 km is underway after few delays and is now expected to begin operations.

This corridor is being developed to provide a better approach between Uran and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT).

The project also stands important to provide connectivity for the Navi Mumbai Airport (Read more on this).