CR lets out space under foot overbridge to a hotel that blatantly uses gas cylinders for cooking.
Here's a perfect recipe for disaster — chicken kebabs, gas stoves and lakhs of commuters.
The railway foot overbridge (FOB) at Kurla station has become a danger zone for lakhs of commuters because the railways has allowed a hotel to use its landing base.
Hotel Arzoo has kept three LPG commercial use cylinders and gas stoves under the bridge's landing, turning a blind eye to the danger posed to lakhs of commuters using the bridge every day.
Moreover, the place where the railway foot overbridge ends, the landing of another bridge merges with it, making the space narrow, crammed and a perfect fire trap. The north-end of the bridge sees a lot of footfall as it links the Kurla road to the BKC road.
When DNA went to the spot, kebabs and fried chicken were sizzling on the gas stoves. With the aroma of fried food thick in the air, the space was filled with smoke and visibility hazy.
Railway officials refused to go on record but said the Central Railway's commercial department had given the hotel permission to open shop under the bridge.
The officials said that work on the subway at Kurla was on and after the subway opens, the landings would be streamlined.
However, they admitted that the subway would be completed early 2013.
"No one will survive in case of a major fire here as there is no space on either side," said Subhash Gupta, a resident of Kurla and a member of the National Railway Users' Consultative Committee said, a ministry of railway body representing passengers.
Another activist Anil Galgali from Kurla said that he had complained to the railway board. "The problem has become worse because of encroachments. Surprisingly, squatters have mushroomed next to the Nehru Nagar police beat chowky," he told DNA.
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