Mumbai: Railway stations beyond Kalyan still have archaic infrastructure

Mumbai is choked and overflowing with people besides filth And so the real estate action has shifted to areas beyond Kalyan with nearly all builders basing the distance to the nearest railway station as the main selling point of their new housing projectsBut since when have our stations been able to boast of anything other than persistent problems The issue with the railways here is that there are just two lines to cater to the enormous crowd moving to the outskirts and the same two lines ferry outstation as well as freight trainsBeyond Kalyan the line splits into two one to Kasara in the northeast and the other to KarjatKhopoli in the southeast The frequency of trains along these lines is very low Passenger growth has been more in areas immediately after Kalyan Shahad Vithalwadi Ulhasnagar and AmbivliThese stations are chocabloc during peak hours and the limited number of trains makes matters worse The railways should think of starting shuttle or Mainline Electric Multiple Unit trains for faster passenger dispersal said Aloknath Chainji a regular commuterA resident of the area Dr Pradeep Galgaokar said The big problem in these areas is the bad road connectivity If trains are down everything is down It is high time the state government developed proper road infrastructure herehellip an alternative and dependable public transport network other than railways is desperately neededmidday visited four stations that have seen passenger growth and need better infrastructure but pretty much all are crying for an upgradeLack of a foot overbridge at the south end of the station leads to crowding at the north one hereAsangaonHere for a change the platform is wide and spacious But there is no foot overbridge at the south end A new one being built in the centre of the station will be of help if finished fast but it too doesnt have connectivity to the east The main problem here is the low frequency of trains leading to a lot of waiting time We want a few mailexpress trains to halt here so that we could get in them Or increase the number of Asangaon locals said Surekha Gosavi another commuterThe north FOB sees more crowd as it connects to the skywalkAmbernathThis one has only three platforms The wide foot overbridge in the south CSMTend is little used while the one at the north end which is anyway narrow sees more crowd There is more pressure on this bridge as it is connected to the eastwest skywalk The railways needs to replace this with a 12mwide skywalk to ease problems You should see the crowd on this narrow bridge during rush hour It is quite suffocating and leads to a stampedelike situation said Sumit Jaiswal a commuterThe problems at this station can be solved with simple upgrades all thats needed is will of the authoritiesBadlapurThe platform here is narrow and has a lot of unnecessary elements such as water kiosks that take up space The station has no cover over platforms in the south end resulting in people sitting at the base of the FOB staircase blocking it The north end of the station doesnt have a bridge at allWork to widen the narrow FOB hasnrsquot progressed at allTitwalaThe station here has just one foot overbridge that too narrow Work was started to widen it but doesnt seem to have progressed Another major problem is the huge gap between the train and platform one The station needs a bridge at the north end as most people cross tracks to get to that side The crowds here are not just officegoers but also visitors at the Titwala Ganpati temple Besides this new housing projects are adding to the population pressure