Staircase work held up for months over BMC permission to cut trees in its way; work finally on track
FOB connecting Kurla East to West is at the Kalyan end of the station
Absent without leave: The staircase to a foot-over-bridge that connects Kurla East to West has been missing despite the FOB being ready three months ago. The reason for the delay in building the stairs is pending permission from the BMC's tree authority. In the absence of the bridge, many tend to jump over the fence and crossover the tracks with Kurla ranking number two in the list of stations that record maximum deaths due to accidents on tracks. While there have been 344 deaths at Kalyan, Kurla has recorded 313 deaths and Thane has seen 295.
A Kurla resident Mofid Khan recently questioned authorities regarding the delay in inaugurating the bridge built towards the Kalyan end of Kurla station. A CR spokesperson said that the railways had been waiting for permissions and that they had received them this week. "The work cannot begin till the BMC's permissions are in place. Now that the BMC's tree authority has given permission, the Central Railway can finish the work in two weeks and throw open the bridge for the public."
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Sources said that the Central Railway may transplant the trees cut for building the staircase elsewhere, depending on their feasibility. The CR has set up a garden of trees transplanted from various city infrastructure projects in an open space at Mumbai CSMT, near platform no 18. Khan said that people wanting to crossover have to currently use the bridges at the Kurla station side, thus resulting in overcrowding. An official from BMC's L Ward Kurla, denied any delay, saying that the process has taken its normal time. Zonal Railway Users' Consultative Committee member Subhash Gupta said that the BMC should prioritise projects or such delays could cost lives.
313
Total no. of deaths on tracks recorded at Kurla station
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