Mumbai: CM Eknath Shinde gives nod for crowd control scheme at Ambernath station

A week after midday pushed for Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme SATIS outside the Bandra and Kurla railway stations the Maharashtra chief minister on Thursday approved a Rs 8153 crore SATIS outside the crowded Ambernath stationIt was during a station audit series done three years ago that midday had highlighted issues at Ambernath station Following this the railways had begun work on improving the station layout internally The SATIS will now lead to improvement of the overall surroundings around the station premisesSATIS is basically all about mass dispersal of passengers outside the station The stations tend to get crowded with every train arriving and hence this comprehensive plan was mooted to decongest this traffic It includes development of everything around the station to facilitate quick and uncluttered movementThe Ambernath station sees a daily footfall of about 2 lakhThe project was sanctioned in the 153rd meeting of the MMRDA held at Mantralaya on Thursday The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA is implementing the Extended Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project MUIP in the jurisdiction of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region The Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR is spread over 6328 sq km and consists of nine municipal corporations viz Greater Mumbai Thane KalyanDombivli Navi Mumbai Ulhasnagar BhiwandiNizampur VasaiVirar MiraBhayandar and Panvel and nine municipal councils viz Ambernath KulgaonBadalapur Matheran Karjat Khopoli Pen Uran Alibaug and Palghar along with more than 1000 villages in Thane Raigad and Palghar districts MMRDA is responsible for the balanced development of the MMRAlso Read Mumbai How crowding at Bandra and Kurla stations can be fixedldquoThis is really a Diwali gift for Ambernath residents and commuters The station area will get decongested MMRDA will be developing parking facilities SATIS on the reserved land east and west of the station premises We thank Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for this projectrdquo said former Ambernath Municipal Council president Sunil ChoudhariIssues with the stationsDuring the station audit done by midday the focus was on two stations in MMR beyond Kalyan on Central Railway that is Ambernath and Badlapur It found inadequate footover bridges crowding and too many unnecessary elements on platformsAt Ambernath in particular the wide foot overbridge in the south CSMTend was little used while the one at the north end which was very narrow saw extensive crowding There was more pressure on this bridge as it is connected to the eastwest skywalk midday had suggested that the railways need to have a wider bridge to ease problems which the railways are now in last stages of completion along with an additional platformAfter this the Central Railway had taken up work on the new wider bridges and platform and eased the problem Now with this project of SATIS approved the area around the railway station will get upgradedBridge work troublesFor the past few days commuters at Ambernath have been inconvenienced due to the work on the ongoing Karjatend bridgeldquoCommuters are inconvenienced at all times of the day We request Central Railway to expedite the work of Karjat side bridge and finish it soon We hope that nobody gets hurt in this daily chaos appealed the Ambernath Citizensrsquo ForumldquoItrsquos high time to increase trains from Badlapur to CSMT There is too much rush in peak hour from 845 am to 930 am The population in Ambarnath Badlapur Ulhasnagar has increased multifold but number of local trains is still the same We request additional trains to and from Badlapurrdquo local commuter Nilesh Chopra saidldquoTwo bridges one at the Mumbai CSMTend and the one in the middle of the platform are new bridges and functional and the one at Karjatend which was heavily used is under works The tiles on the Karjatend civic bridge are also being replaced There are plans to complete it as early as possiblerdquo a CR spokesperson said