There are about 17 reputed companies involved in similar projects, including those from UK, Germany, Korea and the US, in the race to become technical consultant of the multi-crore Churchgate-Virar project, the first AC suburban rail service in Mumbai, a senior Railways Ministry official said. The Railways will select the technical consultant for the elevated rail corridor project on May 29.

Besides the 60 km-long Virar-Churchgate route, the consultants will also be asked to examine the possibility of extending the elevated corridor further to Mantralaya and Nariman Point to CST.

"Initially the proposal was for the 60 km long Virar-Churchgate only. But the Maharashtra government suggested to extend it further. So the feasibility study will also examine the possibility of construction of elevated rail corridor on all the three routes," said the official.

The study will mainly focus on finding possible places on the ground to erect pillars for the elevated corridor.

"Since the corridor will come up above the existing rail network, it is a quite challenging to erect pillars without shifting the rail network," he said. However, there will be diversion of utility services along the track to facilitate construction of pillars.