Mumbai: Of the foot overbridges to be built or upgraded at various railway stations, the one at Elphinstone Road will be the widest, a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query on tendering for FOBs has revealed.
The Railways’ reply to Watchdog Foundation on October 11 shows that while FOBs at other stations, both new or the ones to be rebuilt, will range between 6 and 10 metres in width, Elphinstone Road Station will get a 12-metre bridge. The Railways have also tendered works to extend platforms 1 and 2 at the station.
The RTI query was filed in the aftermath of the September 29 stampede that killed 23 at Elphinstone Road Station.
The reply shows that the existing FOBs at Andheri, Khar Road and Malad will be rebuilt with a width of 6 metres. Khar Road will get a new 6-metre FOB at the north end, towards Santacruz. At Bandra, it will be 10-metre wide.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority will be responsible for the 10-metre central FOB at Virar, while the Railways will build a 6-metre FOB at platform number 8 on the south side of the station.
The Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation will construct 6.10-metre wide FOBs at Lower Parel and Matunga Road. In Kandivali, the Railways will construct a new 6-metre FOB in lieu of the old south bridge. The RTI reply also mentions an FOB at Bhayandar in place of the old west bridge, but does not give specifics.
Godfrey Pimenta of Watchdog Foundation said, “We fail to understand the logic of having different width for different stations, particularly when most of the stations are highly patronised by the commuters.”
Meanwhile, the Railways have announced that suburban stations will now be categorised on the basis of passenger footfall and earnings, not on the distance between stations. Officials said many suburban stations are not in the ‘A’ and ‘A1’ categories — those that earn ₹50 crore annually — and thus do not have a lot of facilities.