Even though it had been in use for nearly a month, the escalator was among the 21 facilities that were ‘inaugurated’ by the railway minister yesterday
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu’s visit to Mumbai was supposed to be short and sweet, as he inaugurated as many as 21 new facilities across the suburban railways. Instead, the ‘inauguration’ turned out to be quite a farce.
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Located on the east side of the north FOB, the Rs 1 crore escalator broke down at 2.30 pm. Pic/Hanif Patel
Almost as soon as he left the city, one of the ‘new’ amenities — an escalator at Vasai station — broke down and had to be repaired. As if that’s not embarrassing enough, it turned out that 15 of the 21 amenities that Prabhu was inaugurating were actually already in use.
For instance, the new escalator at Vasai station was opened to the public nearly a month ago. And yet, it was ‘inaugurated’ by Prabhu yesterday, during an hour-long programme at Dadar. The rail minister then left for the airport at 12.15 pm. By 2.30 pm, the R1-crore escalator began to malfunction.
‘Routine check’
However, Ravindra Bhakar, chief PRO for Western Railway said the escalator didn’t break down but was merely undergoing a maintenance check. “There is a possibility that a routine maintenance check was underway; this is mandatory for the first three months. There is no information about it having broken down,” he claimed.
Like the escalator, many of the facilities inaugurated yesterday had already been in use by the public.
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