Western Railway boss AK Gupta visited Jogeshwari station late on Friday night in the middle of a night-long string of inspections which saw him visiting other stations on the Churchgate-Virar route.
The inspection began at 9.15 pm and ended at 5.15 am in the early hours of Saturday. During this time, he went to Jogeshwari station to take stock of the problems there.
Over the past few months now, commuters who use the station have been demanding wider foot overbridges (FOBs), escalators and connectivity between the Main and Harbour line platforms.
On February 15, this paper reported about the grave issues faced by citizens at Jogeshwari station, in a piece titled ‘Are we waiting for an Elphinstone Road at Jogeshwari station?’ During peak hours, the staircase gets overcrowded, and risks a stampede-like situation.
Officials who were part of this inspection said WR General Manager Gupta reached Jogeshwari around 3 am, where commuter associations and political representatives were already waiting.
“We met the WR officials who said it would take at least 8 months for the escalators to come up. Also the FOBs and staircases need to be widened,” said Mehmood Khan, a Jogeshwari resident.
WR is planning escalators, platform roofs and linking the main and harbour line platforms. The platform is barely 25-foot wide, and the space on the staircases of both the FOBs, to the north and south, is insufficient.
The new platforms at Jogeshwari will be used once the Andheri-Goregaon harbour line starts.
At Virar station, officials took not of the scope for improvement. The subway is leaky and before monsoon, the authorities will try to fix it with an additional pipeline.
BIOMETRIC CHECKS
- To keep a tab on private contractors, WR officials said a biometric system for their staff has been started at Borivali to monitor their attendance.
