mumbai passengers to konkan and south india can expect more trains and faster journey as the central railway will soon throw open an additional line between panvel and apta as part of the 75kmlong panvelroha doubling project at present double line exists only up to panvel beyond which there is single line up to roha from roha onwards the section belongs to konkan railway which also runs on single line up to mangalore work on the 17km stretch from panvel to aptawhich falls under the projects first phase from panvel to pen 35 kmis in the final stages and it will be thrown open to traffic soonva malegaonkar chief public relations officer cr said at present 54 trains run on this sector as the doubling project progresses cr will be able to divert traffic from single track to double track thus opening up slots to run faster or more services to lay an additional line cr engineers had to cut through a hill to build a tunnel a viaduct to carry the track along the patalganga river is also being built officials said this infrastructure was necessary to cut down travel time by taking the track below the tunnel and building the viaduct we will cut the down the distance by a km due to sharp curves the speed limit on the existing track is 60 km however on the new track a train can catch the speed of 120 km the panvelroha section will get an additional rail by 2013 the total cost of the project is estimated to be rs 404 crore another official said cr can explore the possibility of running electrical multiple units emus and diesel multiple units dmus on these route due to capacity expansion apart from passenger traffic the doubling will also be beneficial for freight traffic that moves to and fro from ports at rewas dighi jaigarh and jawaharlal nehru port trust jnpt also the single track will prove insufficient as there is projection of increase in traffic due to a proposal to set up a private freight terminal in panvel moreover the railway budget has also approved the setting up of coaching complex and coach maintenance facility at panvel