The Western Railway (WR) has revived the plan to use the almost unused elevated auto deck at Andheri (east), which was built at a cost of Rs 8 crore.
The Western Railway (WR) has revived the plan to use the almost unused elevated auto deck at Andheri (east), which was built at a cost of Rs 8 crore. The WR will now use half of the deck’s space for auto rickshaws to enter and exit the station.
The deck had gone unused, as the access road for these autorickshaws — M V Road — is lined with shops on either side, making it too narrow to manoeuvre any vehicle.
In addition, the deck will also be connected via a skywalk to the existing foot-overbridge (FOB), which will allows commuters access to the Metro, said senior officials. “For some reason, even though it was built, commuters could not fully use the advantages of the deck. So, after clearing up a few structures, we can now operate autorickshaws on the south side. Although the deck has an exit for them, the road is still choked so they will have to take a U-turn and come back the same way,” said a senior official on the condition of anonymity.
This measure will provide commuters partial relief, and the 12- foot high auto-deck will not be completely useless.
The connecting skywalk is 200 metres in length and will also be helpful, as it will cut short the amount of time commuters spend while using the current 1-km skywalk that connects Andheri railway station to the Metro.
