Using the suspension of regular train services to their advantage, Western Railway (WR) has constructed nine new foot-over-bridges (FOB), one new Skywalk and also extended Bandra Terminus FOB in the past seven months.
Sumit Thakur, Chief Public Relations Officer of Western Railway, said that Western Railway has been undertaking various such developmental works during this lockdown period. "Nine new Foot Over Bridges & one new Skywalk as well as the extension of Bandra Terminus FOB has been commissioned during this period," Thakur said in a statement.
Thakur also said that Western Railway has always given top priority when it comes to the safety of passengers. "It is worth mentioning that as per the audit report of IIT-Bombay, 16 FOBs of W. Rly were to be dismantled which were considered to be unsafe and out of these 13 FOBs have been dismantled. The dismantling work of the remaining three FOBs, i.e, Dadar (South), Andheri (Middle - out of six spans, two east spans have been delaunched) and Goregaon (Middle) are in progress and the target date of completion of these remaining FOBs to be dismantled is 31st December, 2020. As of date, several works of other FOBs, ROB repairs & installation of new escalators on different locations are also under progress," he said.
Meanwhile, Western Railway also extended the foot over bridge at the south end of Bandra terminus for the convenience of passengers. The extended FOB is 6 meter wide and the total length is 54 meter. The extended portion of the FOB was constructed at a cost of Rs 1.60 crore.
"Various infrastructural & augmentation works are being undertaken by Western Railway to combat the issues such as overcrowding on bridges, trespassing, etc. One such work is the extension of the existing FOB which was connecting only PF No. 1 to PF No. 2/3. This FOB of the single-span has been extended by adding two spans and is now connecting PF Nos.1, 2/3, 4/5, and 6/7. The extended FOB is 6 meter wide and the total length is 54 meter. The extended portion of the FOB has been constructed at a cost of approx. Rs. 1.60 crore," Sumit Thakur said.
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