Removal of glass facade from WR building among staff's top issues

The new Chairman of Railway Board, Ashwani Lohani, in his first speech a few days ago spoke about the welfare of railway employees. Lohani in his speech had asked the administration across Indian Railways to spend more time with the staff, listen to them and address their grievances.

However, Western Railway employees are stating that no concrete steps have been taken to address their complaint about the removal of the glass facade that covers the WR's administrative building in Churchgate. No decision has been taken for the last seven years where nearly 1,500 people work.

"The new CRB spoke the need to address our issue. But despite this nothing has been done. It's like a furnace inside the building," said a WR employee. In 2011, the WR had gone in for a building makeover costing Rs 10 crore. As part of this makeover, a huge glass facade was installed. The employees have been complaining that since then these huge windows are blocking the sea breeze from the west.

There were plans to centrally air-condition the building which also did not take place as the estimated cost was a whopping Rs 14 crore. However, officials said that they have removed a few glass fittings for cross-ventilation. "We did remove a few glass windows a couple of years ago. Right now there seems to be no problem," said Ravindra Bhaskar, Chief PRO, Western Railway.