Mumbai: As BMC, railways bicker MLA gets work started on pathway using his funds

The approach road to Andheri East station in a disarray. Pic/Sayyed SameerR Abedi

The civic body and railways really need to get their act together and stop troubling citizens by repeatedly passing the buck. Usual lack of coordination between the two has been inconveniencing commuters passing through Andheri station's east side. Immediate work was needed for a proper approach road, as the entry-exit point gets flooded every monsoon. But with both the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and railway authorities saying it's the other's responsibility to do it, the local MLA decided to take it upon himself to get it done for commuters' sake.

The issue
The access road to the ticket booking centre at Andheri East, from where the BMC had moved all the shops to widen the entry-exit point, was not completely done up. And to add to citizens' misery, railways and BMC neither fixed it nor coordinated with each other about the flooding problem. Ramesh Latke, Shiv Sena MLA from Andheri East, said that after several locals approached him, asking him to take up the issue with the BMC, he decided to get the job done by using his MLA fund, instead of running around trying to follow up with the civic authorities.

"The BMC should have done it before the monsoon. It failed to, so I told MHADA to execute it using MLA fund and treat it as emergency work, so that citizens are not inconvenienced. However, the continuous rainfall over the past few days has halted the work. We have kept the material in an isolated building near the place... Once we get some dry period, work on laying of paver blocks will be completed," he added.

Meanwhile, circus continues
A senior civic official from the K-east ward office said the office has no information about the work going on at the access road towards Andheri station, adding that he will procure information about it. If the work is being done with the help of MLA fund, it is not mandatory to inform the BMC, said a civic source. Western Railway PRO Ravinder Bhakar, too, said the railways is unaware of any work being done there currently, and that the BMC "must be doing it" as it falls under its jurisdiction.

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