Railways opens Vikhroli foot overbridge

As many as eight months after protests by the residents of Vikhroli to construct a foot overbridge

As many as eight months after protests by the residents of Vikhroli to construct a foot overbridge (FOB),the Central Railway (CR) on Friday commissioned one without much fanfare. The bridge connects the east and west sides of Vikhroli in the south direction.

The bridge is an outcome of public protest that followed the death of four people in October 2010. Before the commissioning of the FOB,commuters used to cross railway tracks. It is to be noted that the railways and the BMC decided to construct an FOB and a road overbridge respectively soon after the protests. While the railways has constructed the FOB,the work of the ROB is yet to start.

Interestingly,Terence Dsouza,a resident of Vikhroli and a member of the Bombay Catholic Sabha (CBS) has also approached the Bombay High Court complaining about width of the FOB. The organisation had also protested when the railways had decided to start the fifth and sixth line between Vidyavihar and Thane early this year. Though Newsline has made several attempts to contact Dsouza,he was unavailable for comment.

Its good that the railways has constructed the FOB as the station was recording casualties on tracks. There is a school near the crossing and it becomes messy in the morning,noon and evening when the students cross the tracks, said Vilas Sawant,a resident.

The FOB will certainly help reduce incidents of trespassing. The FOB has been declared as a non-ticketing area and the users need not purchase tickets to use it, said Vidyadhar Malegaonkar,chief spokesperson for CR. But the CR will take a couple of weeks to close the FOB. We have secured the state governments permission to close the crossing. It should take a week to close the line, said Malegaonkar.

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Central Railway