Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to explore the possibility of introducing staggered work hours for office-goers in Mumbai, which he says will reduce the peak hour rush in suburban trains

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to explore the possibility of introducing staggered work hours for office-goers in Mumbai, which he said will reduce the peak hour rush in suburban trains.

"I requested the CM to have staggered office timing (for people in Mumbai). If we can stagger the office timing, the load will automatically go down. The CM agreed to consider this request favourably," Prabhu told reporters after a lengthy meeting with Fadnavis here.

Asked if the staggered office timings, when implemented, will also be applicable to those working in private sector or will it be restricted only for government staff, Prabhu said, "It will be applicable to everyone (all suburban train commuters in Mumbai)."

Prabhu said railways are proposing two major elevated roads, one from CST to Panvel and another from Churchgate to Virar.

"The CM liked the idea. This was my idea that we should have six-lane roads running below the train (tracks). This will reduce the road traffic considerably and will bring in lot of revenue to the system. We are losing lot of money on suburban railways. Any time you want to add something, the viability issue comes in," the minister said.

Suburban trains are known as "lifeline" of the financial capital of the country and ferry around 70-80 lakh commuters daily from far-flung areas located across its huge network, and any disruption in its services means huge inconvenience to commuters.

Prabhu said a standing committee for integrated transport solution will be created since multiple agencies are working on the transport system. "The CM has agreed to it," he added. He said Fadnavis has also given sanction to start MUTP-3 (Mumbai Urban Transport) project which has already been cleared by him and work on it will start "very quickly".

Prabhu said a special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be formed between the railways and each state to implement various railway projects.

"Accordingly, the Centre and Maharashtra Government will soon form the SPV to implement pending and new projects," the minister said.

Along with the municipal corporations, we will have an integrated waste-disposal system as we don't want the stations to be unclean and the city dirty, he said.

"We have decided to create a special task force to tackle the rush during the forthcoming Nashik kumbh mela," Prabhu said. He said the railways has agreed to create special projects only for Defence.

"Myself and defence minister Manohar Parrikar have agreed to create special railway projects only for defence. We will use the same model for Naxal affected areas," he said.