Civil work on the Central Railway zone's under-construction suburban railway corridor between Panvel and Karjat has begun. On February 22, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) announced the completion of the longest tunnel on the Panvel-Karjat suburban route. When completed, the tunnel will be the longest on the suburban rail corridor. The Parsik tunnel at Mumbra is currently the only tunnel on the Central Railway suburban route. The approach cutting and controlled blasting work for tunnels (T1 & T2) has begun, according to the MRVC. In contrast, the underground excavation for tunnel T1 (92 metres) is complete. T2 and T3 portal (tunnel entrance) excavation is currently underway. Subhash Chand Gupta, chairman of the MRVC, stated that the double line corridor will allow suburban services to run, providing an alternate route from Mumbai's main island city to Karjat via Panvel. “This additional suburban corridor will not only provide an alternate route between CSMT and Karjat but will also work as a catalyst for the further economic development of fast-developing Panvel, Karjat, and NAINA areas. With the Ministry of Railways and the Government of Maharashtra focusing towards infrastructure development of the suburban rail network of Mumbai, my dedicated team of MRVC is working as planned to deliver on time,” Gupta said, adding that the new corridor will also provide a shorter commute between the CSMT and Karjat. The Panvel-Karjat suburban corridor has been approved for five stations. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2025. The project requires 57.18 ha of private land spread across 24 villages in the Panvel, Khalapur, and Karjat talukas. According to the MRVC, a total of 56.28 ha of private land has been acquired, and compensation has been paid to all 24 villages. The project also includes public and forest land. A total of 4.4 ha of government land has been acquired in its entirety. The forest department also required clearance for a total of 9.13 ha of land (4.96 ha government forest land and 4.22 ha private forest land) for the corridor's construction. The permission to work on forest land was issued by CCF (Chief Conservator of Forest) Thane in August last year. See also: Railway line doubling to reduce travelling time between CSMT-KarjatThane-Kalyan-Bhiwandi viaduct across Kasheli Creek completed