The travel of lakhs of commuters on the Western Railway (WR) is set to get easier as the proposal to use the fifth line between Andheri and Borivli has been accepted. The fifth line, which is currently used to run long-distance trains, is ready and will have local trains plying on it within a month. This will ensure that more suburban trains are available for commuters.

"The Commissioner of Railway Safety has given clearance to run local EMU (electric multiple unit) trains on this (fifth) line. We are hoping to start operations in less than 45 days," said AK Gupta, General Manager, WR.

The EMU trains will run only during peak hours between 8.30 am and 11.30 am, and 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm. With stagnation in the existing network, additional services cannot be added. The fifth line is set to help decongest the line and add more services on their network.

In the last one year, the number of daily commuters between Andheri and Borivli has increased from 11.29 lakh to 11.69 lakh. Only seven of the 37 stations on WR contribute to nearly 35 per cent of total daily commuters carried by them.

"The fifth line will now allow us to operate nearly 40 additional services. Moreover, the Harbour line on Andheri-Goregaon belt too will be ready soon," said a WR official.

Each train carries nearly 4,200 people per 12-car rake during peak hours. In an hour at least 15 services will ply in each direction with an average headway of four minutes creating more room for commuters and increasing carrying capacity to 63,000 an hour.

Over the past few days now, WR officials have been carrying out modifications to their system including to overhead cables, its poles, and other peripheries.