Mumbai: Ticket booking office opens on Mulund's new twin foot overbridges

The booking office set up on the recently opened bridge at Mulund station. Pics/Rajendra B Aklekar

The new twin bridges at Mulund station have finally got a ticket-booking office. The makeshift office will help commuters to buy tickets on the bridge itself. mid-day had highlighted how the new bridge had been delinked from the existing elevated booking office in the east.

Sagar Devre, an advocate and commuter activist who has been following up the issue, welcomed the development. "The booking offices on the new bridge will be very helpful for commuters in a hurry. The east side does not have an elaborate set up like the west," he told mid-day. Opened two weeks ago, the swanky bridges had not been linked to the existing elevated ticket booking office in the east as the old bridge is in line for demolition.

Advocate Sagar Devre, commuter activist

After this newspaper highlighted the issue in April, railway authorities built a makeshift ticket-booking office on the bridge itself, solving the problem.

Other old bridges to go

Older railway bridges at the south and north end of the station are all set to be demolished. While work is now underway at the north end of the station, the southern end old bridge and the booking office will also be demolished soon, rendering it useless.

The predecessor

In March 2023, mid-day reported how the original 50-year-old bridge had severely corroded due to rotting vegetables left behind by illegal hawkers and structural alterations by a public toilet contractor. The bridge was repaired and reopened briefly for six months before being torn down in 2024.

Wave of development

Following this, work on the replacement bridge was started by the Prime Minister's Gati Shakti Unit of Mumbai division. This also coincided with the redevelopment of Mulund station by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), which planned complete elevated decks and more bridges. The public footbridge was merged with another railway bridge close to it to build jodi bridges for ease. The station is also getting an elevated deck with 14 staircases, seven escalators, and two elevators with a swanky entrance plaza and link-up of all the foot overbridges.

14
No of staircases to be built