Let us see action stations at these key spaces

Crowding is common at Kurla station. File Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Two key railway stations in Mumbai that see a very high footfall and pedestrian movement on the outside, Kurla and Bandra, remain neglected, according to a recent report in this paper. The solution, according to some experts, is to introduce a Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme (SATIS) to segregate and streamline traffic and people.

We already have a SATIS in Thane, which has helped tackle these issues to some extent.

Problems at these stations include auto-rickshaws literally buzzing around commuters as they make their exit. In Bandra East, bus stops are dilapidated. At stations where there is more disorder than order, auto drivers demand unfair fares from desperate commuters. There is a high chance of accidents occurring as frantic commuters on their way to work get out of stations.

Autos, buses, hawkers, some cars and pedestrians simultaneously attempt to negotiate tiny areas and one cannot fathom the lack of action at these
spaces.

Officials from every planning and executing agency concerned need to come together to de-tangle this.

At Bandra East in particular, one has witnessed a policeman trying to bring some order to the chaos. He was also pulling up errant rickshaw drivers not plying by the meter. Yet these actions are sporadic and certainly do not approach the problems in a holistic manner.

The train station has an entire ecosystem, and so must be seen as a space requiring co-ordination and action, rather than sporadic efforts, by one authority.

We need to take from other successful projects, and implement them at these stations. Since there is already an example of one place getting its act together - in this case, Thane - one must use this as a blueprint, tweaking it to suit that facility one is trying to improve and bring relief to thousands.