Finally, attention for Seawoods station

NERUL: Close on the heels of the HT campaign on the plight of railway stations in the city, Thane member of parliament (MP) Sanjeev Naik on Friday inspected the Seawoods railway station.

The railway station is being developed as part of an integrated commercial complex by engineering major Larsen and Toubro at a cost of Rs1,809 crore.

Last month, Hindustan Times had carried out a detailed campaign about the problems faced at each of the 15 station in Navi Mumbai owing to the lack of amenities.

During his visit, Naik was accompanied by executive engineer of City Industrial and Development Corporation ( Cidco) NV Rao, superintendent engineer Vijay Kambale, DCM (Railway) Rajiv Ranjan, Gaurav Jha and executive of L&T Shranik Shah.

Naik also took a close look at several passenger amenities and discussed plans to improve them.

He also visited the platforms and met a number of passengers who apprised him of problems that are being faced by them due to encroachment by hawkers, lack of potable water, rest rooms, ticket counters, police chowki etc.

People who live nearby who complained about dust blow- ing from the construction work at the station premises.

Spread over 16.2 hectares, the integrated complex will have an IT park, club house multiplexes, malls, hotels, offices. The engineering major will also develop a railway station building at a cost of Rs35 crore. However, so far, the proposal does not account for an escalator.

Thus, Naik asked L&T officials accompanying him to build an escalator to the proposed station development plan and take steps to curb dust piled up owing to construction work as it pose health risks to people residing in nearby areas.