TMC releases ₹5cr for FOBs at Thane station

Mumbai: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has released ₹5 crore to the Central Railway (CR) towards completion of two foot over bridges at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Kalyan ends of the Thane railway station

Mumbai: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has released ₹5 crore to the Central Railway (CR) towards completion of two foot over bridges at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Kalyan ends of the Thane railway station. Work on the over bridges had been halted due to shortage of funds.

TMC releases ₹5cr for FOBs at Thane station

“I followed up the matter with the corporation and on Friday, after which they released the tranche of ₹5 crore,” said Rajan Vichare, member of Parliament from Thane and Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) leader. He thanked Thane municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar for releasing the funds promptly and said the railway administration had assured him that the funds were sufficient to complete both overbridges.

Thane station witnesses a daily footfall of 7-8 lakh commuters, most of it during the peak hours, when the premises are overcrowded. In May 2019, the Central Railway had demolished the foot over bridge linking Thane east and Thane west as it was old and dilapidated. On November 13, 2019, the then Thane municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal approved funds worth ₹24 crore for the construction of two overbridges at Thane and one overbridge in Mumbra.

The corporation subsequently released money in two tranches of ₹8 crore and ₹4 crore for these projects. But work on the overbridge at the Kalyan end did not commence in the intervening months, while construction of the bridge at the CSMT end was halted after 70% of the work was completed.

“Now that funds have been released, the railways will undertake a mega block soon to place the final girder on the overbridge at the CSMT end. We hope that they will also start work on the Kalyan-end overbridge and provide some relief to commuters,” said Vichare.

Vichare also met the divisional railway manager of CR in the Mumbai division, Rajanish Kumar Goyal, and urged him to allow commuters to use the foot overbridge that connects Thane station with Chendani Koliwada. They railways had barred pedestrian traffic on the overbridge some months ago.

The overbridge was built in 1932, following persistent demands from the Koli community who lived in Chendani Koliwada. It was dismantled and rebuilt by the railways when the trans-harbour route linking Thane with Vashi was started.