March 22, 2002

    The States of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have signed MOUs with the Ministry of Railways to form Rail Infrastructure Development Companies.

    Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation, a Joint Venture between the Ministry of Railway and the Government of Maharashtra, is undertaking the following major projects in Phase 1 for capacity augmentation and systems improvement of the suburban rail transportation system in Mumbai area.

1. 5^th line between Santacruz-Borivali Western Railway.
2. Kurla-Thane-Additional pair of lines.
3. Optimisation of Central Railway suburban infrastructure.
4. Optimisation of Western Railway suburban infrastructure.
5. Optimisation of Harbour line.
6. Borivali-Bhayandar Quardrupling.
7. Bhayandar-Virar Quadrupling.
8. DC to AC Conversion of Traction Power Supply.
9. Conversion of Electric Multiple Units (EMU) to AC-DC system.

    The other two Joint Venture companies with Governments of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are yet to become operational.

    This information was given by the Minister of Railways , Shri Nitish Kumar in a written reply to a question by Dr.(MS.)P.Selvie Das in the Rajya Sabha today.