The landing of a rail foot over bridge at Goregaon is preventing road widening of the vital Aarey road starting from the railway station. Now, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) have been approached to give away their 630 sq.meters land for purpose of constructing 18.30 meters road where BEST has its bus station.
The issue of handing over this land is going on since June 2019, when the BMC first made plan for road widening as per Development Plan 2014-34. This 18.30 meters wide land passes through the 4973 sq.meters land reserved for BEST bus station where cattle market existed in the past.
“In the proposed area for the road, there is a landing of foot over bridge (FOB) that is difficult to be removed at this stage. We will have to surrender 630 sq.meters of land for this road,” said a BEST official.
In the past the BEST had suggested realigning the landing of FOB at Goregaon (E) to avoid parting away their bus station land. The BEST have been asked to clear the area by removing the compound wall, electric poles, bus queue shelter, platform etc. The BMC has already started work on the north end of the bus station after removing encroachments.
Here they have a bus station and bus stops used by passengers. As per the proposal received by them from BMC, the BEST needs to handover 630 sq.meters of land for 18 meters wide of Aarey road. “We have sought approval from BEST Committee now,” added the BEST official. They are now paying Rs 13.21 lakh per annum for 30 years lease since 1997.
Goregaon railway station sees a daily footfall of around 2.5-3 lakh back under normal situation. Over the years has seen many MNCs setting up their offices, commercial businesses, shopping malls and even a huge convention center there. The Western Railway has also extended the Harbour line till Goregaon, which has also allowed people travel all the way to CSMT. To cater to the growing demand, they revamped the station by connecting the FOBs with a huge concourse above platforms.
