Tendulkar writes to Railway Minister, suggests creation of dedicated zone for Mumbai

Cricketer and Rajya Sabha member Sachin Tendulkar has pushed for the creation of a single dedicated zone comprising suburban networks of both Central and Western Railway for better management of Mumbai’s overburdened rail network.

The suburban railway in Mumbai, touted as the world’s busiest rail network, operates 2,342 local train services and carries more than 7.5 million commuters daily.

“I am sure you will support this idea beyond the difficulties of implementation, it will provide much needed focus, budgetary assistance and exclusive administration to the needs of the people of Mumbai,” the cricekting icon wrote in a letter to Union railway minister Piyush Goyal.

The former captain also suggested the creation of a corporation dedicated for the city’s rail network.

“It will help optimise management of suburban railway stations and surrounding railway-owned land, and enable speedy decision-making, holistic planning and execution of projects. It will also free Mumbai suburban from overall supervision of Indian Railway, which remains largely preoccupied with maintenance of country’s national rail network,” he wrote further.

The railway minister is yet to respond to the letter.

Incidentally, when the MP had first suggested the unification of zones in 2015, Minister of State for Railway Manoj Sinha had reportedly dismissed the same on the grounds that senior officials did not find it feasible.

Meanwhile, earlier today, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed Lok Sabha that since 2014-2017, railways had incurred a loss of Rs 4280.50 crore by running the suburban rail network in Mumbai.

“Indian Railway is incurring losses by running local train services in metropolitan areas of Mumbai. In the last three years, while the total earnings was Rs 5206.16 crore, the expenditure was Rs 9486.66 crore and the loss was of Rs 4280.50 crore,” Gohain said.