Four months after PM launches Uran rail line, stations have no drinking water

Four months after launch, Uran-Kharkopar rail line lacks drinking water and toilet facilities at four stations, causing inconvenience to daily commuters.

Navi Mumbai: Four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Uran-Kharkopar line, four stations in the route are yet to get drinking water and public toilet facilities. The Uran rail route is attached to the Harbour Line and has four operational railway stations- Uran, Dronagiri, Nhava Shena and Shemtikhar. The rail line connects to Belapur which makes it convenient for hundreds of commuters to travel towards CSMT. However, passengers say they are struggling for the most basic facility on the route like drinking water, despite the stations having water coolers.

HT Image

The water supply to the coolers at the railway stations has not yet been initiated. Since its launch on January 12, the Uran rail route has seen an increase in the number of commuters using it every day on this route.

“With temperatures soaring over 40 degrees, it is natural that one would feel thirsty. Due to less frequency of trains in the route, the waiting time for passengers is more. Not everyone carries a water bottle,” said Deepak Mhatre, a resident of Uran who added, “One expects such basic facilities at these supposed modern stations, especially after years of waiting.”

Shubham Gupta, a commuter who had come from Malad to Uran for some work, said “There are four water coolers with tanks on the two platforms, but with no water, they are of no use. Worse, there are no stalls from where I can purchase a bottle of water. It is disappointing and shocking that railway authorities have done nothing since the railway station was commissioned four months back.”

No toilet facilities at the four stations have also irked daily commuters like Mangesh Bhagat. “There is a toilet for railway personnel, and they sometimes allow some passengers to use them. What does one do when one really must go? Do the railway authorities want us to urinate in public in these times of Swachh Bharat mission?

A railway official, when contacted, said they will look into the issue. Repeated requests for a response to Rajnish Goyal, divisional railway manager, Central Railway, Mumbai division, did not elicit a response.