RailEnquiry

The newly-built foot overbridge (FOB) at the Dadar end of the Parel station has found no takers, and consequently passengers continued to face inconvenience. It has also left the railway officials red-faced as the move by the authorities seems to have backfired. “The much-awaited FOB was opened to the public on August 15 last year as far as I recall, but I have hardly found any commuters using it. It seems that officials made a mistake by planning its,” said Amit Kumar, who frequently visits KEM Hospital and uses the new FOB. The old FOB, on the other hand, is used by large crowds on a daily basis. According to rail experts, `1.4 crore seems to have completely gone down the drain. A senior railway official from CR said that the new FOB is close by for those commuters, who alight from last three coaches on the Up trains, and those who board in first three coaches on the Down trains. “I don’t know why commuters don’t use it,” he said. The official added that they are planning to familiarise commuters with the new FOB by taking help from scouts and students. Speaking on the issue Mukesh Nigam, DRM (CR), said, “When the FOB was planned, setting up of Parel mini-terminus and a skywalk was also planned simultaneously, but the other plans did not materialise. We hope that when the Parel terminus is operational, the new FOB would be used widely.” It is noteworthy that officials planned to build this FOB at somewhere between platform, however, it left no space on either side of the platform.