A year on, commuters unhappy with conditions at Ram Mandir station

Say station unsafe for women, lacks access to autos, doesn’t have food stalls

Some commuters complained that many trains do not halt at the railway station.

NEARLY A year after the Ram Mandir railway station was inaugurated for public use, it still grapples with several issues. While some commuters have complained that many trains do not halt at the station, others have raised issues of security and lack of feeder services from the station. Railway officials have, however, said that these were teething troubles for the 37th railway station on the
western line, and that the issues would soon be taken care of.

Many women said they were concerned about security at the railway station, especially early in the morning and late at night. Bhayander resident Clarissa D’Souza, whose office is a short distance from the railway station, has to reach her workplace by 6 am. “Initially, I would take the train from Bhayander to Ram Mandir and reach at 5.30 am. There was hardly anyone on the platform. I would then take the north-end bridge which would connect to a spot where there were no auto-rickshaws. It is poorly lit and has an isolated stretch, and during the early hours I did not feel safe. Now, I have gone back to getting off at Goregaon station and taking a rickshaw from there,” she said, adding, “When I leave in the afternoon from work, however, I use the Ram Mandir railway station as by then, there are people around and it is safe.”

Deepali Pore, who also works some distance from the station, concurred with D’Souza. “One has to walk for nearly 10 to15 minutes after taking the north-end bridge to get an auto-rickshaw. That too, only if it is a good day. On some days, I have walked up to Hub mall to get an auto-rickshaw. Also, the road connecting the station to the main road does not feel safe.”

Some commuters complained that many trains do not halt at the railway station. “The semi-fast down trains, that are fast till Andheri, halt at Jogeshwari and Goregaon but do not stop at Ram Mandir. So if I have to come from Churchgate, I’d rather get off at Jogeshwari and take an auto from there like I did before the station came up,” said Joseph Verghese, an Oshiwara resident. “Also, another issue is that there are no food stalls on the railway station. One cannot even get a bottle of water,” he added.

A Western Railway official, however, said that they were ensuring that stations with island platforms do not have food stalls. “We have, on purpose, not allowed any food stalls on the premises of the Ram Mandir station. This is an effort to decongest commuter crowd at the
station,” the official said.

Railway officials said that the station sees a daily average footfall of 26,800 commuters. They said semi-fast trains did not halt at Ram Mandir station in order to avoid delay in the running of suburban trains.

“We have scheduled the operation of trains in such a way that maximum local train services can be provided to commuters. This can happen by giving fewer halts at stations which do not witness much crowd. In the renewed timetable of the Western Railway, brought into effect from October this year, we did not see the demand for fast trains to halt at this station so it was not implemented,” a senior official said.

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Railway officials further added that they received multiple complaints about the station not being well-lit during night hours. Senior official from the Railway Protection Force were instructed to check on miscreants at the station in the evening, they said.

“There is no station master to guard the station at night. We are working on each of these issues. Once, the remaining two platforms of the station are opened to traffic after the inauguration of the Andheri-Goregaon harbour line in January, it will see more traffic and a station manager will also be posted by then,” a senior railways official said.

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