Railways, Maha govt to step up MUTP projects

The Ministry of Railways, in collaboration with the Maharashtra government, has initiated steps to revamp the Mumbai suburban railway system through implementation of the Multi-modal Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP).

The main aim of the new system is to bring down over-crowding in peak hours and segregation of suburban train operations from the mainline passenger and freight services, a release issued here said today.

MUTP phase-1 was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 3,125.20 crore. To ease congestion at booking counters, a number of steps are being taken by the railways, which include provision of additional booking counters, coupon validating machines and computerised unreserved ticketing system.

Instructions have also been issued to extend Jansadharan Ticket Booking Sevak scheme to the Western Railway. Provision of contact-less, smart card-based ticketing system and automatic ticket vending machines (ATVM) are also being planned for use in the future.