Good News: Railways plan two new pedestrian bridges at Prabhadevi station, one will connect Parel

Prabhadevi, formerly known as Elphinstone Road, railway station on Friday (right) The partially built bridge at the Churchgate end of the station. Pics/RAJENDRA B. AKLEKAR

In a move that could transform commuting dynamics on the Prabhadevi-Parel axis, Western Railway (WR) has said that it's working on two new foot overbridges (FOB) and exploring the feasibility of a new platform on the west side of Prabhadevi station. While one bridge will be built in the middle of the station, another one in the works at the south end will be linked to Parel station's circulating area, improving connectivity between the stations.

Central Railway (CR) has independently started redevelopment works at Parel station at the cost of Rs 9.41 crore, which involves creating more circulating area, shifting a booking office and creating a large walking space for entries and exits. It is on this side, near the approach road of Parel station, that the new foot overbridge linking Prabhadevi station will be coming up.

The existing road overbridge over Prabhadevi and Parel stations is also being reconstructed as a double-decker bridge as part of the Sewri-Worli connector, which will link the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) and Bandra-Worli Sea Link. mid-day had highlighted a few weeks ago how stalls and utilities at the station had been streamlined in the wake of complaints from commuters. The Railways have said two new foot overbridges are under work and they will also study building an additional platform to decongest Prabhadevi station.

Replying to the original complainant, WR, said the construction of a 12-metre-wide foot overbridge had been proposed in the middle of Prabhadevi station, which will connect platforms 1 and 2 to the west side of the station. The construction work will start soon. "A foot overbridge at the south end of the station, which will connect the east and west circulating areas, is also under construction. While the WR portion is complete, the CR part is being built and will be completed soon," an official said.

The newly opened escalator at the Dadar railway station. Pics/RAJENDRA B. AKLEKAR

As far as an additional double-discharge home platform is concerned, WR officials said the feasibility of constructing an additional platform will be explored and action will be taken accordingly. Commuters had complained that there was a single platform at Prabhadevi station and during peak hours of morning and evening, there are trains from both Borivli bound and Churchgate bound that halt at almost the same time. This situation was creating a stampede-like situation at the north and south ends of the bridges.

Considering that Prabhadevi railway station has one of the highest average daily footfalls on WR - 78,000 - the area is highly insufficient, compromising the safety of railway passengers at large. "We are thankful to Railways for initiating action and look forward to more positive developments like these," Devendra Tandel, president of Akhil Maharashtra Macchimar Kruti Samiti, who had originally petitioned the railways with a complaint about the congestion at the station, said.

The partially built bridge at the Churchgate end of Prabhadevi station

"The problem is with the narrow staircase to the south (Churchgate) end of the bridge. Railways need to build one more staircase here along with a lift. This will help decongest the bridge in the morning and evening peak hours," another commuter, Pushkar Jain, said.

Dadar station escalator opens

As highlighted by mid-day, platform 8 of Dadar station was widened and opened for the public recently. The platform has been widened from seven metres to 10.5 metres. Following a series of articles by this newspaper on how the railway police had been struggling to manage the crowd at platform nos. 1 and 2, CR's Mumbai divisional railway manager (DRM) Rajneesh Goyal had promised not just to widen the platform but had also drawn up a master plan of the station to create more space for passengers, including other platforms. The escalator at the station, which had been under construction for several months, was finally opened to the public on Friday.