Dombivali has beaten CST, Thane and Kalyan railway station to become the most crowded and fare generating suburban station in the Mumbai division on Central Railway (CR), an RTI query has revealed in Mumbai.
The reply to a query filed by activist Anil Galgali said that a total of 2,33,635 passengers travel through this suburban station on a daily basis and Rs 14,94,538 is collected via fares from there everyday. Whereas Thane stands on the second spot where 2,25,490 passengers use this station everyday while fetching Rs 13,84,020 as fares.
Figures on suburban daily average in terms of ticket selling, numbers of passengers and fare receivables of all 85 suburban stations of Mumbai division on CR also say that Thane remains at the top position in terms of ticket selling (60,895) on daily basis, while Kurla station was at the second spot from where 55,552 tickets are sold daily on an average. This was followed by Ghatkopar (42,977) primarily due to the commencement of Metro Rail from this station.
According to figures furnished via RTI, a total of 8,97,019 tickets are sold at all these 85 stations and 38.56 lakh passengers travel on CR daily generating a fare collection of Rs 2.19 crore.
CR has 121 rakes to serve passengers by 1618 train services on daily basis.
Kalamboli, a station on Diva-Panvel route witnesses the lowest number of passengers with only 55 tickets sold daily. Only Rs 887 is collected as fare from here. Reacting to the findings, Galgali said that number of train trips are very less in comparison to commuters travelling everyday which is primarily owing to the "lackadaisical" approach of the officers.
"Railway authorities have completely failed to live up to the aspirations of the local train commuters and this is why everyday over 10 passengers die owing to different kind of incidents," said Galgali.
The basic reason why railway officers have failed to comprehend the problem is that railway officers, accountable for safe and comfortable journey, never travel in local trains, he said.
