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CR to decongest platforms for convenience of commuters
Commuters at Dadar, Thane, Kalyan and stations will soon find relief as Central Railway plans to decongest platforms. This includes removing stalls on platforms and diverting passenger or mail express trains to dedicated platforms
Mumbai: Commuters at Dadar, Thane, Kalyan and stations will soon find relief as Central Railway plans to decongest platforms. This includes removing stalls on platforms and diverting passenger or mail express trains to dedicated platforms.
The main aim will be to decongest the island platforms and prevent stampede like situations. Some island platforms in these three stations handle suburban as well as long distance train traffic and hence are more congested. These stations cater to both suburban and Mail express trains.
Island platform are those where trains halts on either side of the platforms in up or down direction. Rajnish Kumar Goyal, Divisional Rail Manager, Mumbai, CR, said, “During my inspection, I witnessed congestion at Thane station. This was due to crowd of both local and mail express commuters on same platforms. We are planning to relocate few stalls from island platforms of Thane, Kalyan and Dadar stations at suitable locations”.
Platforms have huge pillars for foot over bridges and staircases, to top it the huge food stalls and washrooms take up a lot of space. “There are some stations that have more than five stalls as well which takes up a lot of space. Apart from commuters waiting for trains there are a few who are waiting around these stalls as they eat or drink adding to the crowd on platforms,” said Siddhesh Desai, General Secretary, Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh.
The newly appointed DRM has started a survey of Thane Kalyan and Dadar stations to understand the possibilities. “We shall start with Thane and Kalyan stations initially and phasewise shift these stalls. Gradually we shall move towards Dadar station, as of now we have diverted 8 express trains in Thane to dedicated mail platforms, eighteen more are in the pipeline,” said Goyal.
CR in 2019 had declared all platforms as no-sleeping zones in an attempt to curb crimes and decongest stations.
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