Finally people using local trains and Metro rail at Andheri station, will get a breather. The Western Railway will construct another foot over bridge (FOB) connecting the railway station with metro station at Andheri. In fact, on February 9, the top boss of Western Railway, General Manager Anil Kumar Lahoti scrutinized the development on this work at Andheri station as part of his inspection of Mumbai Suburban rail.
According to senior WR officials who were part of this inspection, stated that Lahoti paid a surprise visit to Andheri station on Wednesday morning, though it wasn't part of his inspection schedule. He along with troupe of railway officials examined the progress of this FOB, the passenger crowd interspersed between the two modes of mass transit trying to catch the trains, engineering works underway along with other aspects for development of Andheri railway station.
Andheri railway station sees a daily footfall of 2-3 lakh which before COVID-19 used to surpass 5-6 lakh as well per day. On the other hand according to officials from Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL), the daily footfall at Andheri station is 40000 passengers now out of the total ridership of 1.90-2 lakh or so on the entire network. The highest is at Ghatkopar where they witness 50000 passenger footfalls on a daily basis, as on today.
"At present we witness serpentine queues on rail premises (the bridge that connects suburban and metro rail) of passengers who want to board metro trains at Andheri. So we are constructing another FOB that is coming from West side of Andheri station connecting few of our platforms as well and Andheri Metro station," said a WR official on condition of anonymity.
This FOB is 56 meters long and 6 meters wide for which pillars have been laid and partly girders launched. GM Anil Kumar Lahoti also inspected railway stations of Borivali and Virar stations and Virar carshed as well. Here, according to WR officials, he inspected the luggage scanning machines, mobile ticketing units, ticketing counters and other amenities and facilities there. At Virar carshed, Lahoti inaugurated 'green-bin' used for composting, visited training school for motormen and emphasized that railwaymen should pay attention on safety aspects during maintenance of trains.
