Railway commuters - a furious lot

MUMBAI: Railway commuters, who use the foot-overbridge at Borivli station, are a furious lot. Spotting train timings on the indicators from a distance has now become an arduous task due to hoardings mounted bang in front of them. The situation is worse during peak hours when the bridge is choc-a-bloc with commuters.
"If I stand at the west end of the bridge, I cannot see the indicator, which is just 20 feet away, because the advertisements block my view completely.Most of them were put up by private coaching classes,'' said Salim Ansari, a regular traveller.
Prachi Sharma, a dentist, said she has to stand right under the indicator if she wants to see it. "When it's crowded on the bridge, it's almost impossible to see the indicator. How will we to know if a train's timing or platform number changes? I've missed a number of trains because of this,'' she added.
"In peak hours, people have to jostle to get a better look at the indicator. The bridge is already slippery because of the rains. If the arrival time of a train suddenly changes, there's complete chaos. I'm worried about my teenaged daughter who travels to college alone at this time,'' said chartered accountant Vivek Shah.
Western Railway chief PRO S S Gupta said, "The indicators on the Borivli foot-overbridge, towards the north side, are to be replaced with larger ones. This should be complete within the next month or so.''
Gupta also said that if the advertisement banners were causing trouble to the commuters, they would be relocated or removed.