WR gets 2.5 cr for new road overbridge

MUMBAI: Western Railway (WR) officials were pleasantly surprised on reading the fine print in a document called the Pink Book on the Indian Railways' website after the Railway Budget was announced on Friday.
WR has been allocated a "substantial" amount of Rs 2.45 crore for a road overbridge (ROB), which will come up in place of two level-crossing gates between Andheri and Jogeshwari stations.
The surprise element, they said, was that they had sent the proposal to be cleared by the Railway Board and were given an 'in principle approval'. However, they are still waiting for the formal approval to come in. "We expect the approval soon. This is a positive sign," he said.
Officials said that the railway portion of the project would amount to Rs 14-15 crore while the remainder of the funds would be come from the BMC. The project would need around 21 months to be wrapped up.
WR is in the process of shutting all the level crossing gates on its suburban section. A few days ago WR started work on another ROB between Jogeshwari and Goregaon stations which would be a major boost to the Oshiwara station project which has been stuck for several years. Residents who stayed in the belt refused to let go of the level crossings this was the only short cut for an east-west connection.
"Andheri and its surroundings is a very highly populated area and getting from east to west is very time consuming. In the last fortnight three outlets have got a push ahead- metro over the station area and the two ROBs- which when completed will see decongestion of road traffic and improvement in connectivity," said the official.