CR heaves a sigh of relief with 200 cr funds for safety works

In these times, maintaining social distance has become the need of the hour. The good news is that the Central Railway (CR) is adding more foot over bridges, escalators and lifts but behind the scenes, the CR authority had a tough time convincing the railway ministry to provide funds for these safety works in the Budget.

The CR officials said that they had to urge the Railway Board to provide funds else work of station improvement would have been affected. And in this budget they got Rs 200 crore for safety works which will be used for building new FOBs, escalators and lifts; which will be double of

existing infrastructure. Sources said that given the Covid situation, getting funds was a difficult task and they had to convince the Rail ministry to provide funds for Safety works.

According to senior officials from CR, they will be constructing additional 80 escalators, 50 lifts and 15 FOBs by 2022. "We will be opening 10 escalators and five lifts by March this year," said Sanjeev Mittal, General Manager, Central Railway.

This will take the total number of escalators to 166 and 95 lifts that will be completed next year. Presently, 76 escalators and 40 lifts are available on the suburban railway stations. Likewise 15 FOBs will be constructed on the railway stations. Some of the stations where these amenities will be constructed are Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Dadar, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Sandhurst Road, Parel, Sion, Tilak Nagar, Chembur, Mankhurd and Panvel.