Mumbai: The central railway has requested the civic body on Monday to help in clearing drainage, on hawkers’ encroachment and proper disposal of garbage. These requests were made during a meeting conducted between senior central railway officials and civic body officials.
On Monday, a district planning committee meeting was organised at Chetna college in order to discuss about the problems related to infrastructure works on the railway stations on the central line. This meeting was a part of detailed structure and safety audit being conducted by central railways.
The audit is being conducted on at least 76 suburban stations on the central line. The central railway officials said that the on-going maintenance work by their department is being affected due to encroachment along railway tracks and sewerage drains discharging on the railway tracks.
Due to these problems, rail fracture and mud spilling on the railway tracks have been reported during the monsoon. “We have identified at least 29 locations on the central railway line where drainage problems were alarming. Out of these, at least 15 locations would be worked out in the first phase. We are co-ordinating with the civic body officials to initiate the works,” said S K Jain, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of central railway.
The officials also said that requests were made to civic body to clear the accumulated garbage on the railway tracks. “We have been running at least four special muck trains which helps in removing the muck from the railway tracks. We have also requested the civic body to provide garbage bins to the colonies located near railway tracks to prevent garbage throwing by the residents,” added Jain.
The civic body has also agreed to declare “hawker free zone” area upto 150 meters around the railway station premises. “We are planning to prepare a data base of hawkers who are prosecuted for hawking on the railway premises. This will help the concerned departments to take stringent action against the hawkers who have repeatedly found hawking on the railway premises,” added Jain.
