Scores of the railway commuters have been forced to use the staircase of the Himalaya Bridge outside Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station as the BMC failed to get the pending escalator installed even after seven months of the bridge being opened. If civic officials are to be believed, the escalator is ready but the contractor hasn’t installed it as the increased cost of work has not yet been cleared by the BMC.

The Himalaya foot overbridge (FOB) at CSMT was reconstructed and opened on March 30, 2023, four years after it collapsed. The FOB collapsed on the night of March 14, 2019, claiming seven lives and injuring more than 30. It was used by more than 50,000 railway passengers daily. After the structure collapsed, there was a lot of back and forth over its design, a subway being created and the setting up of escalators. The BMC finally issued a work order without the option of an escalator for Rs 5.75 crore.