City gets Rs 947-crore redevelopment plan for 19 of the most crowded stations; to be ready within 18 months of contracts being issued
Commuters climb the rail overbridge at the busy Santacruz station, which will get an elevated deck. File pic
Crowded and cluttered key Mumbai railway stations with high footfall will get elevated to level 2. The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation has called for work orders on a detailed plan for each railway station to maximise benefits in the given space, without disturbing existing traffic movement. The Rs 947-crore redevelopment project is part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project 3A funded by Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The 19 railway stations will be redeveloped within a period of 18 months once the contractor is finalised.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Around 19 stations are being redeveloped with multiple decks and interconnected foot overbridges. These include 12 stations on Central Railway—Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Bhandup, Mulund, Dombivli, Neral, Shahad, Kasara, GTBN, Chembur, Govandi, and Mankhurd, and 7 on Western Railway—Mumbai Central, Santacruz, Kandivli, Mira Road, Bhayander, Vasai, Nallasopara,” a MRVC spokesperson said. Giving further details, a top official said, “Detailed plans have been chalked out for each station as per their existing layouts to maximise commuter movement and bigger circulating areas, inter-connected bridges and segregated entry exit points.”
Ghatkopar station, which sees heavy footfall, is among the stations that will get an elevated level
“The earlier MUTP I and II have resulted in an increase in railway corridors, conversion of all 9-car trains into 12-car trains and conversion of 12-car ones to 15-car trains. These additional services have increased commuters’ volume at the stations, and therefore station capacities are required to be upgraded. In addition, the circulating spaces for passengers have become restricted due to improvement of service and increase of length of trains to 12/15 coach. There is an urgent need for additional circulating space by provision of elevated decks, interconnection between footbridges, improving entry/exit projects,” he said, adding, “There are a total of 119 stations on the Mumbai suburban railway system. As most of the stations are more than 80 years old and are highly congested, this plan has been worked out to improve and upgrade them from a passenger’s amenities point of view.”
“All station upgrades have been planned professionally with balanced green space, ATM machines, other existing utilities, parking lots, circulating areas. The objective of the project is to provide an improvement with holistic planning, which allows substantial increase of the station’s quality of service, in terms of comfort, facilities and pedestrian fluidity,” he added.
Details of the upgrades at 19 stations
Some of the basic objectives are:
Fast and efficient passenger flow: To deal with the level of traffic, existing difficulties in managing passengers’ movement and dispersal
Safety and security: To mend the decrepit structures and provide fire safety, in the station area
Maximum passenger convenience: To make stations equipped in terms of services, commercial facilities, amenities and waiting premises
Flexible interiors: To take care of the fast construction, it is important to adapt the flexible/ modular interiors, so that in a short span of time, facilities can be provided
It is planned to upgrade work consisting of provision of FOBs, elevated decks, inter connection between deck/FOBs, skywalk, relocation of service buildings, stalls, kiosks etc., improving entry/exit, improving circulating area, provision of green space, improvement in general lighting and general electrical services etc. at various stations of Central and Western Railways.
What will be done
1. Providing a new elevated deck, footbridges, linkways and skywalks
2. Inter connections between footbridges through elevated decks
3. Providing platform extensions/rebuilding them
4. Provision of escalators and elevators
5. Development of circulating areas, green patches
6. Relocating of structures and shifting of utilities
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
