New elevated walkway connects Virar to Churchgate end, easing commuter traffic and boosting station capacity
The new deck creates additional space for commuters
Seamless at Andheri now. A new railway skywalk to facilitate commuters of the harbour line and those going to the west has now come full circle, literally. Andheri is a key connecting station for Metro with over 7 lakh footfall every day.
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The Western Railways has now completed the elevated interlinked walkway at Virar-end of the station, the last remaining puzzle of the jigsaw, that now allows commuters to complete the circle as one can now take a walk from the west side starting Virar-end of the station to the Churchgate-end, come to the east and go back to the same place. The elevated roundabout in the process has also created huge square feet of circulating area for passengers.
Map of Andheri station. Pic/m-Indicator
“There was an elevated deck already over platforms one, two and three now another one parallel to it has come up on platforms 4 and 5 at Virar-end. The connectors will help passengers on the harbour lines & those going towards the west. This deck will eventually go a long way in helping commuters coming out of the Metro Blue Line 1 station exit as commuters can now go left or right in both ways to reach their platforms. The new bridge at Virar end connected to the new elevated deck has staircase landings on all platforms," a WR official said.
“This has generated a huge square metre of space on the upper deck almost doubling the capacity of holding the crowd and creating new circulating areas. It will take off people waiting for the train away from the crowded island platforms,” he said. As reported by mid-day earlier, Western Railway has embarked on a station decongestion programme to upgrade infrastructure to sync with the future growth of the Metro network.
“The existing Metro trains are four-coach trains, but the platforms and infrastructure is meant for six coaches. With existing four coaches, we are getting so much influx and it is expected to go up as Metro expands in the near future and WR is working ahead of time to prepare for this," an official said.
Future plans
Further, the entry to the station, along with drop-off and pick-up points, has been planned at the Versova Marg Road to ease the congestion on the existing entrance. The deck will be integrated with skywalks on Swami Nityanand Marg.
How many passengers
Sources said at Andheri station, the passenger statistics at the station are extremely high with a crowd of about 7 lakh passengers on a daily basis.
7 lakh
Daily footfall of passengers at Andheri station
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