WR, BMC, commuters lock horns over 12-car parking lot

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder in this case Western Railway WR While officials claim they want to spruce up a small parking lot mdash generally used by railway authorities mdash outside Churchgate station they say Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC isnrsquot doing its bit to beautify the space Space jam This minuscule space outside Churchgate station has led to a wrangle involving WR BMC and train travellers PicDatta Kumbhar This parking lot is right next to an approach to the station opposite Cafeacute Bharat and next to a public toilet WR claims that this unpretentious parking lot that has space for around 10 vehicles apart from a couple of ambulances is in a sorry state ldquoTowards the end of this lot adjacent to a power substation the road is rather corrugated Moreover BMC hasnrsquot set tiles or pavers which gives the place an ugly lookrdquo said a senior WR official on condition of anonymity Tight squeeze The situation is problematic even for railway commuters rushing to and from their offices at peak hours ldquoRailway officials abruptly park their vehicles in that little area and around it choking the space meant for commuters entering station premisesrdquo said K Verma member Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh WR officials claim lack of proper arrangement for parking is the reason why they are forced to plunk their vehicles on the road or on the footpath adjoining the lot which creates problem for travellers They also blame slum dwellers for placing their wares in the area making it risky for them to park their vehicles ldquoThe pavers have been partially installed while some of the portion is bumpyrdquo said another official Nearly ten days ago general manager of WR Mahesh Kumar personally inspected Churchgate station and this parking lot Officials though claim it was a routine inspection as they are also planning to add a lift to this eightstorey building next to the public toilet for WR employees Dark spot ldquoWe are ready to beautify and improve this stretch with our fundsrdquo said Sharat Chandrayan chief PRO WR adding ldquoThis is one of the dark spots outside Churchgate station that comes under BMCrsquos jurisdictionrdquo BMC officials however maintain they havenrsquot received any intimation from WR on this issue ldquoI will have to check the statusrdquo said an official from the roads department who didnrsquot wish to be named Meanwhile WR authorities are also contemplating extending the glass faccedilade onto the west side of the station building Officials claim that this will depend on the availability of funds WR spent nearly Rs 4 crore installing the existing veneer which was initially opposed by its own employees as it created lack of ventilation The design was later changedu00a0 Manic Monday gtgt On Monday WR services were hit due to a point failure at Virar that disallowed trains to cross tracks gtgtu00a0u00a0This resulted in delay in services of four trains to and from Virar station thus causing bunching of trains gtgtu00a0u00a0Central Railway also saw trouble on Monday afternoon after an overhead cable snapped between Kalyan and Shahad stations gtgtu00a0u00a0This affected evening peak hour services as trains coming to CST were running late