The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) has missed the deadline for Phase-I of Nerul-Seawood-Uran railway line once again. The services on the line will begin from October 2018 instead of 15 August 2018.

CIDCO had initially planned to hand over five stations on the line -- Belapur, Nerul, Seawood, Bamandongri and Kharkopar — to Central Railway (CR) by 3 July 2018; however work was delayed due to transport strike and rains.

Phase-I of 12 km stretch from Seawoods to Kharkopar was originally supposed to be complete by December 2017, which was then postponed to March 2018, and then to 15 August 2018.

The entire stretch from Seawoods to Uran is 27 km with a small branch line from Targhar to Belapur.

The eight stations on the line, Targhar, Bamandongari, Kharkopar, Gavhan, Ranjanpada, Nhavasheva, Dronagiri, and Uran, once fully functional will benefit the JNPT container port in Nhavasheva, fishing communities, ONGC and GAIL in Uran.

The land for the stations of Phase-I was already under CIDCO, but around 0.67 ha is yet to be acquired for Phase-II ,which extends from Kharkopar to Uran.

Phase-II of the rail line will be constructed by the Central Railway. CIDCO and the Central Railway will share the cost of the project 67:33. The complete project is estimated to cost Rs 1,782 crore, out of which Rs 975 crore is being spent by CIDCO and the remaining will be spent by the Railway.

A total of four bridges, five road-over-bridges and 15 road-under-bridges and one-track under-bridge will be developed under the project.

Of the station coming up in Phase-I, Targhar will be handed over only in 2019 as it will take 30 months to construct. The station is planned to have an iconic structure. A sky train has also been planned which will be connecting from the station to airport.