Escalator shifted from Mira Rd to Mahim station

Mira Road station work; (right) the escalator at Mahim station

In a first-of-its-kind experiment on the Mumbai suburban railway, a platform escalator from Mira Road station has been moved 26 km away to Mahim as a part of the station renovation project. The newly-installed escalator at Mahim was inaugurated locally on Friday morning.

The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) is currently working on an upgrade of Mira Road station, which will have new infrastructure, including a wider platform one; wider, linked foot overbridges; an elevated deck; and new escalators.

As the escalator was coming in the way of the work, it was dismantled, transported and reassembled at Mahim station.

Mira Road station is one of the busiest ones, witnessing a daily footfall of 1.15 lakh and handling nearly 550 suburban trains.

"New escalators have already been planned as part of the station improvement work at Mira Road. The existing escalator on platform one was impacting station improvement work [at Mira Road] so it was installed on the north side of platform one of Mahim station. This was the first time an escalator was shifted by MRVC on Western Railway's Mumbai Division," an MRVC spokesperson said.

Works planned at Mira Road stn

. Widening of platform one from 6 m to 10 m
. Building 240-m-long and 10.50-m-wide deck over platform one
. Installing five escalators and three lifts.
. Constructing 10-m-wide and 65-m-long FOB
. Constructing 23-m-wide and 50-m-long FOB
. Dismantling 6-m-wide FOB
. Constructing station staff, other offices/lounges