BMC-Railways hold joint meet, plan for subways

Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Tuesday called for a review meeting of the Bridges department and Removal of Encroachments department of BMC, which was also attended by Railway officials. The meeting took place on a day when Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Elphinstone Road station and announced that the Indian Army will build foot-overbridges (FOB).

Member of Parliament of BJP Kirit Somaiya, who was also present at the meeting, proposed to build pedestrian subways at three railway stations — Ghatkopar, Bhandup and Mulund — instead of building additional FOBs.

"BMC chief and railway officials have sanctioned the proposals and Ghatkopar station's survey plan will be made soon. The subway at the three stations connect all the platforms. The cost will be borne 50-50 by railways and BMC, but work will be carried out by Railways".

"The proposed idea is to build subways at railway stations instead of FOBs like in the case of stations in Navi Mumbai. The additional FOBs and escalators are expensive, and wherever it is feasible, subways can be built which will play a role in diverting the crowd," a senior BMC officer said.

On removal of encroachments, especially hawkers at exits of railway stations, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Nidhi Chaudhari said, "We have already allotted tenders for deploying additional pick-up vans outside railway stations in city. Plus, I have a review meeting with concerned staff on Wednesday to take decisions on provision of logistics for taking strict action against hawkers. Whatever heavy logistics the staff needs for removing hawkers and other unauthorised structures at exits of railway stations, will be achieved".