Bandra railway station foot over bridge is falling apart

Though only to make way for a new one; in the interim, commuters will be inconvenienced, with just one staircase leading to another portion of the bridge at sub-urban Bandra railway station

If you walked into the Bandra railway station on Sunday and found a chunk of the heavily-used foot overbridge sealed, don't worry. A part of the bridge was shut down for some much-needed rebuilding on Saturday night. However, this overnight change came with commuters facing confusion. Several inconvenienced commuters complained on Sunday, saying teams from the Railway Protection Force and other police could have been deployed for monitoring crowd movement.

Harish Alva, an Andheri resident who travels to Bandra for work said, "There was no information about this bridge being closed. So, when I reached here I was completely confused at first. It is Sunday today and offices are closed. I'm sure the situation will be more chaotic on Monday."

The bridge being shut came as a rude shock to several commuters on Sunday

There should have been an alternative, says Ramdas Ghule, a Bandra resident who commutes to Kandivli for work every day. "This will definitely lead to huge crowds on the staircase, especially as there will be only one entry and exit point to get to this bridge. The other bridge is anyway not used much. They should have created an alternative before shutting this bridge down," he said.

Sayali Jadhav, a resident of Nalasopara who works at BKC said, "Thankfully, my timings are such that I don't face a lot of crowd. But I'm sure the situation will be very difficult during peak hours. This lone bridge is already majorly cramped during peak hours. Now, there will be only one staircase leading to and from it."

Ankush Bajya, resident of Vasai who comes to Bandra for work, is being slightly optimistic. "This new bridge looks very broad, so there won't be a problem once you are on it. But there will only be one staircase now, and it will be chaotic every time a train arrives on the platform. They need to at least deploy security officials to manage the crowd on the staircase." Meanwhile, Western Railway's chief public relations officer Ravinder Bhakar said that the middle bridge would be dismantled and a new one will built in its place by August.

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