Mumbai: Currey Road station's foot-over-bridges fail to ease commuters' woes

The bridge built by the Railways lands in a public playground in the west

One would assume that following last year's stampede at Elphinstone Road station in which 23 died, the Railways would exercise care while handling future projects at the city's stations. Far from it, a city MP has revealed how the lack of coordination between the Railways' infra planners, building two new foot overbridges (FOBs) at Currey Road station on Central Railway, will leave commuters scrambling. The two newly-constructed FOBs, one of which will open next week, not only land in opposite directions - one in east and the other in the west -- of the single-platform station, they also don't have a connector.

The issue came to light after Shiv Sena leader and MP Arvind Sawant, who represents the South Mumbai constituency, took senior railway officials to task during a meeting held yesterday evening.

The two bridges planned for Currey Road station in the aftermath of the stampede were separately taken up by the Railways and the Indian Army.

The first bridge constructed by the Railways at a cost of Rs 1.35 crore was completed in November last year. The 3.66 m-wide and 21 m-long bridge starts from the railway platform on one side and lands in a public playground in the west, catering to office-goers on NM Joshi Marg. However, the second bridge -- a 30 m-long FOB -- built by the Indian Army at a cost of R3.9 crore, lands in the east side.

Sawant pointed out that if a commuter wanted to cross over from west to east, he'd have to take one bridge to alight on the platform, before climbing another bridge, to go to the other side. This mess could have been avoided if the planners had thought of building a small connector between the two bridges, Sawant told mid-day.

"I'm aware there were land acquisition issues on both sides of the station. So, the railway-built FOB opens in the west side into a garden and the army-built bridge lands into a newly-acquired plot from a private party. But, no one thought of providing east-west connectivity for commuters. Isn't that basic common sense?" the MP said.

According to Sawant, railway officials admitted to the mistake and said that they would get a plan ready for a third bridge with end-to-end east-west connectivity. "But, where's the space for this. It is a single platform and how much can it take?" Sawant asked.

Subhash Gupta, former member the National Railway Users' Consultative Committee

Subhash Gupta, former member the National Railway Users' Consultative Committee, said, "A third bridge would only mean more time and waste of public money. Having a connector at this point of time will be of immense help to commuters."

Commuters too revealed that during peak hours and festival season, the station sees a lot of over-crowding, and that having east-west connectivity would help. "The two small stations of Currey Road and Chinchpokli are now crowded due to office-goers and during the 10-day Ganpati festival, when crowds come to see the Lalbaugcha Raja, the problem only escalates. I hope the Railways finds a solution at the earliest," said commuter Chand­rakant Shinde.

Arvind Sawant, MP

Jitendra Gupta of Mumbai Transport Forum said the lack of a common transport body was responsible for the chaos. "This is a perfect example of how shoddily things work here. The city needs an overall common transport body like that in London, which can holistically plan and develop the city," he said.

Railway officials refused to speak on record, but, a senior official said, "Currey Road station is a tricky place with no land available on either side. The idea of a connector is good. We have done the same at Elphinstone station too. We will look into it."

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