Mumbai: Prabhadevi station gets another upgraded bridge

Following a stampede at the station in 2017, there were a slew of upgrades including a new bridge by the Indian Army

'Stampede station' Prabhadevi will get one more bridge upgrade with an extension and improved connectivity between Central Railway and Western Railway. An inspection and a review meeting of the bridges by local Member of Parliament Arvind Sawant revealed that the work is in process.

Many upgrades

Following a stampede at the station in 2017, there were a slew of upgrades including a new bridge by the Indian Army. The Indian Army built a footbridge spanning a length of 73.1 metres and a width of 3.65 metres at a cost of R10.44 crore in a record time of 117 days. This was followed by a 12-mts wide deck bridge linking Parel and the former Elphinstone stations. This was in addition to an additional platform at Parel and an extension of the Prabhadevi slow train station into 15-car platform. The new deck bridge with escalators, elevators and linked sides of both stations has been used extensively by commuters.

"One more bridge at the middle of Prabhadevi station and at the south end of Parel station will now also be linked to Central Railway and its east side, which will be an end-to-end bridge as per the requirement there," Sawant said.

A senior official said the proposal for extension of the existing Prabhadevi FOB on the east side over Central Railway has already been sent to the railway board for sanction.

The crowds at Parel have gone up since it has been developed into a terminus. In a project that cost R51-crore to Central Railway, the station has been remodelled so that it can be utilised to the maximum. The old slow platform has been widened from 7mts to 12 mts and a new platform added.

Decongesting Dadar

The idea to build a terminus at Parel was to decongest the existing Dadar station that sees a passing crowd of about 5 lakh passengers every day. The idea was conceived to cater to the crowd in central Mumbai where the pressure has been increasing since the closure of textile mills and opening of new office complexes.

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