Indian Railways has approved the construction of the Somtane-Chikhli chord line, a 3.7 kilometre (km) link on Central Railway, at a cost of Rs 1.72 billion (Rs 1.72 bn). The new chord will bridge the missing link between Chikhli on the Karjat route and Somtane on the Roha route and will allow trains to avoid entering Panvel Junction. The alignment is intended to remove the need for engine reversal for through trains and to streamline movement between the Karjat and Roha corridors.

Panvel Junction handles traffic from four major directions, including Roha, JNPT, Karjat and Diva and has been a significant operational bottleneck for the Mumbai region. The absence of a direct chord has required many freight services to enter the junction, contributing to congestion and delays. The approved chord is designed to provide seamless connectivity and to reduce operational constraints on the network.

The project is particularly important for freight linked to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), which handles nearly 60 per cent of India's container traffic. Freight trains operating between the Karjat, Jasai and Roha corridors currently enter Panvel and undergo engine reversals before proceeding, increasing detention and turnaround times. With the commissioning of the chord, each freight train is expected to save approximately 110 minutes of detention, improving logistics efficiency and network throughput.

Completion of the chord is projected to facilitate the movement of nine million tonnes per annum (mn tpa) of additional traffic and complements the Panvel elevated chord lines on the JNPT-Karjat and JNPT-Roha sections. The project, therefore, completes a crucial missing link in western India's freight connectivity and supports multimodal connectivity and capacity augmentation. Indian Railways has continued its focus on developing efficient freight infrastructure to meet growing logistics and economic requirements.