In the making for 14 years, Kurla subway may open by Diwali

Civic officials said that the construction work was almost done for the east-west linking subway, which is considered a classic case of improper co-ordination among the various authorities.

The Kurla subway may be opened to the public before Diwali.

Civic officials said that the construction work was almost done for the east-west linking subway, which is considered a classic case of improper co-ordination among the various authorities.

The railway authorities had completed about 70% of the work before 2005, but the remaining was held up as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had refused to give permission for the areas where the entry and exit points for the subway were supposed to be.

After abandoning the work for years, the civic authority resumed construction of the subway that connects almost 10 suburban railway tracks on the main and harbour lines of Central railway (CR), in February 2016.

Before that the authorities decided the convert the vehicular-cum-pedestrian survey into an only-pedestrian survey and hence the work on the staircase was under progress for one year. Activists hope it will bring relief to many commuters, once complete.

"This uncompleted project had proved to be waste of resources. I hope it will be completed now and also bring down deaths on railway tracks", said Anil Galgali, a right-to-information activist.

The BMC and Central Railway have spent Rs5.05 crore on the remaining work of the 130m-long subway that is 7.6m wide and 2.6m high. Galgali said that the civic body had informed him that CR would provide an additional fund of Rs2.11 crore to complete the project.

According to the RTI query, CR had awarded work to Solapur-based Mahesh Roopchandani for completion of work under the railway lines, while the civic authority appointed JL Construction for work on the entry and exit points.

Despite repeated attempts, SO Kori, chief engineer of the BMC could not be reached for comment.