If the much-hyped elevated Oval Maidan-Churchgate-Virar (OCV) railway corridor has little chances of coming up anymore, does it make sense to have an elevated premium service from Andheri to Virar? Or to take the Harbour line - currently being extended from Andheri to Goregaon - all the way till Virar? These two new scenarios are also being thought off, though at a nascent stage, within the railway circles in the city.

Officials said that with chances of the OCV corridor now remote, and the state fully committed to the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz-Airport Metro III, the need for an elevated corridor from Oval Maidan all the way till Andheri is greatly reduced.

"The options are to have an elevated line on the same premium, AC, separate fare concept as the OCV one, but this time between Andheri and Virar. The railways believes there might be takers for this project because the area from Andheri to Virar is seeing exponential growth and that is expected to continue for a long time now," said an official.

Another plan is to have the second phase of the Harbour line extension- the current extension is till Andheri- and take it all the way till Virar. "It will give the northern and far-northern suburbs another corridor to reach south Mumbai," he said.

Meanwhile, railway minister Suresh Prabhu held a meeting with senior Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) officials on December 30. It transpired that some of the big-ticket projects in the third phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) should be kick-started without any delay.

"There is the Virar-Vasai-Diva-Panvel line which can create a third Mumbai on the lines of Navi Mumbai. It can bring about a lot of urban development in the Vasai-Diva belt. In turn, it can de-congest some stretches of both Western and Central Railways," said an official.

The line is in the cold storage for some time now as both the railways and the state have not been able to reach a consensus its funding. While the railways wants the state to get the local civic bodies along the rail route to levy taxes for the project, the state wants the railways to build and operate it in the traditional way with state taking care of issues like land acquisition.

A follow-up meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is also on the cards for city railway officials to ensure state support for these projects is received soon, said sources.