Divisional railway manager Mukul Jain and RPF's senior divisional security commissioner Anand Vijay Jha of Western Railways (WR) confirmed the 'security risk' hitch.
Western Railway's Railway Protection Force (RPF) has sounded the death knell for the Rs 10-crore elevated autorickshaw deck at Andheri station, terming it a security threat. The deck was the first attempt by the Indian Railways to use the airspace of a railway station to reduce the traffic problems of a civic road -- in this case, the Nityanand road running alongside.
Divisional railway manager Mukul Jain and RPF's senior divisional security commissioner Anand Vijay Jha of Western Railways (WR) confirmed the 'security risk' hitch.
WR authorities, led by Jain, had conducted an on-ground assessment of the deck a couple of days ago, and they found that the deck threw up other problems as well. "It is too steep for rickshaws with luggage. Some of the rickshaw drivers we spoke to demanded excess fare of Rs 15-20 because they believed the deck is out of bounds for them. The approach road from which rickshaws will climb the ramp is also narrow. It will inconvenience commuters entering Andheri station on foot," Jain told dna. He said that all these problems, solutions to which have not been found, mean the deck is not opening "anytime soon".
The plan will go down in railway history as one of the most pea-brained, agreed officials, because WR engineers went about completing the work without solving vexed problems.
The original plan envisaged rickshaws plying on Nityanand road in the east of the station entering the deck using a 100-metre-long elevated autorickshaw lane. The rickshaws would then move on to a two-lane elevated deck – 60-metre-long and 34-metre-wide with footpaths on either sides – built between the middle and north FOBs of the station.
After picking up customers from the deck, the rickshaws would cross the north FOB and head towards MV road and further onto the Andheri-Kurla road below the Andheri metro station. The first hiccup was when officials couldn't find a way to get rickshaws to cross the FOB without disturbing commuter movement there.
Started in 2011, the project should have been completed by December 2013. However, with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) failing to clear the approach road of shops, it got stalled. It was finally cleared in February.
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