There is good news for Mumbaikars who endure the torture alighting at or boarding trains at Parel station every day. The much-delayed Parel Terminus project took its first step after the railways put out a tender to build a Rs1.97 crore Route Relay Interlocking (RRI) cabin for the station. Officials told dna that it is the first of the works to get off the ground as part of the Rs1,000 crore plan to build two new lines between Kurla and CST and also create a terminus at Parel.

The RRI is a signalling mechanism that controls the movement of trains on multiple tracks and is generally the first thing to be built, according to officials, whenever such a large-scale track alteration has to be made as is the case with the Parel Terminus.

According to officials, if all goes according to plan, the RRI cabin should be commissioned by November 2015 and Parel terminus itself should come up two years from now. "The terminus, though a part of the Rs1,000 crore, 5th and 6th line project, can be built independent of the pace of the entire project," said a senior CR official.

Once complete, Parel terminus will have a new 408 metre platform on its western side and line number one- currently used by slow trains moving towards Dadar- will become the terminal for trains ending and originating at Parel. A little-used goods line will become line number one, said officials. "It will also have skywalks that will connect Parel to Elphinstone, as well as the Carol road bridge that runs above both the stations. It will be a relief for commuters and hopefully, the government and railways, will work together to speed up the construction," said the official.

The entire project, which includes an elevated Harbour line deck at Kurla station, is not expected to come up before 5 years, pointed out officials. "This is an optimistic assessment. There is land acquisition to be done as well as rehabilitation of project-affected persons. These are two issues on which the state hasn't shown great speed in the past so we will have to wait and watch," said an official.

The Rs1,000 crore plan, gathering dust for almost a decade in railway files, was cleared by railway minister, Sadananda Gowda, on September 8 this year. The Parel terminus work, a part of this plan, is expected to cost Rs90 crores.