MUMBAI, May 7 -- The "abandoned" sign on a ground-plus-three storey building at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) spells good news for commuters on the Central Railway (CR). The CR office building will be demolished to make way for longer trains on the railway's Main Line. Sources said this will allow the railway to run 15-car trains from platforms 5 and 6, increasing the carrying capacity of each train service by 25%. These platforms currently accommodate 12-car trains. "Once the building is razed, tracks will be shifted and platforms extended," said a railway official. "The office space and technical set-up for the signalling system inside this building has been shifted to a location at the end of platform 18, at the CSMT terminus," he added. The project has received the necessary clearances but a tender is yet to be floated for the demolition. "After the building is razed, we will be able to extend platforms 5 and 6 to accommodate 15-car trains. As a result, there will be three platforms at CSMT that can accommodate 15-car trains. All of them are on the Fast corridor of the Main Line," the source added. Currently, CR operates 1,810 services, which includes 22 services of 15-car trains. The extension of platforms at CSMT will take the number to 65-75 services of 15-car trains. "The increase will be gradual but we intend to reach the targeted number within this financial year," said another CR official. The railway is also extending platforms on the Kalyan-Badlapur and Kalyan-Asangaon sections, as part of its endeavor to add third and fourth rail lines on these sections. Sources said work on extending the platforms for 15-car trains at Vasind station on the Kalyan-Asangaon route is underway. The third line connecting Kalyan and Asangaon is targeted for completion by December, while the fourth line on this section is expected to be completed a year later. "Once the extension of platforms on the Kalyan-Badlapur and Kalyan-Asangaon sections is finished, we will be in a position to run 15-car trains on the Slow line as well," said an official. A 32-km-long fourth track on the Kalyan-Asangaon corridor will require 25 hectares of land and is expected to cost Rs.398.88 crore. This project is part of the broader Kalyan-Kasara third and fourth line initiative to separate long-distance and suburban trains. The Kalyan-Badlapur third and fourth line project aims to separate long-distance and suburban trains on the 14-km section. The project, costing Rs.1,510 crore, is funded by the Ministry of Railways and the Maharashtra government. The new lines will provide much-needed rail connectivity to satellite towns such as Badlapur, Ambarnath and Ulhasnagar....