Touts, taximen tax Bandra-Kurla passengers

The Kurla terminus is a case in point. It has a single 60 feet access road, which promises a bumpy ride, to the main station. At the main gate of the station, touts swoop in on passengers with assurances of seats. Those with confirmed tickets are at the mercy of rude porters who unnerve them by telling them that their train will pull in on the platform farthest from the gate, thus compelling them to hire him.

For passengers disembarking here, nightmarish experiences await. Errant taxi and auto drivers make their way to the compartments to solicit customers.

"The BEST bus will come only after an hour, no other taxi or auto will reach you once I have spoken to you. You are my customer," is the strategy adopted by the taxi and auto drivers. Passengers who hire them end up paying at least double the fare as the meters are started the moment the drivers park their vehicles near the terminus. A token fee of Rs 10 to the lone constable at the gate ensures them an entry inside the station.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) for the city, Hasan Gafoor points out that the traffic flow around the railway properties is taken care of by the Government Railway Police (GRP). "It is a matter of jurisdiction that the GRP has to look after the traffic arrangements near railway stations. A similar case exists at the Mumbai Port too, where the Port Zone police is incharge," he said.

A senior GRP official said the traffic flow at the Kurla and Bandra terminus has increased manifold during the last year. "To tackle it, we have deployed our staff in shifts. The GRP traffic police regulate traffic efficiently and we have not received any complaints from the passengers about their connivance with the touts or taxi drivers," he asserted. Over to Bandra now.

With no access road from the nearest station, passengers have to take a detour of three kilometers by an auto. Overcharging is routine here, since the auto-drivers "do not get return passengers from the terminus".

The terminus has become a camp for notorious criminals from the Behrampada slums, and are hand in glove with taxi and auto drivers. A senior Western Railway official confirmed that the Behrampada slums have blocked the access road to the Bandra terminus. When the terminus was being constructed, the encroachers were asked to vacate the road area. They were however saved by the intervention of a Congress MP who asked to have them shifted.

Overnight legal opinion was sought by the encroachers and they got a stay from the HC. The matter now rests with the Supreme Court.