A massive facelift of railway stations is underway in Mumbai and its extended suburbs. As part of this exercise, seventeen local suburban railway stations including that of Khar, Ghatkopar, Kandivli, Borivali, Goregaon etc have been taken up for commercial redevelopment at a cost of over Rs 900 crores. More than 6.43 lakh sq ft or 147 acres of elevated commercial spaces are being created across railway stations as part of this exercise.
This project, which has been undertaken as part of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP- 3A) is unlike earlier rail station developments in that the exercise is not only aimed at enhancing the commute experience, but also at realising the commercial potential of the stations.
Contracts for the first four stations were awarded in October 2022 and contracts for the remaining 13 stations were awarded in February 2024. While Khar is on the verge of completion, the entire redevelopment project is slated for completion by March 2027.
Apart from this, twelve stations in Mumbai are also being revamped and upgraded as part of the ongoing Amrit Bharat station scheme initiative by the Centres to develop 554 stations across the country. These include stations like Byculla, Chinchpokli, Diva, Shahad, Mumbra, Vidyavihar, Kurla, Matunga, Wadala Road, Sandhurst Road and even Igatpuri (outside Mumbai suburbs, but part of the Mumbai Railway division).
Why is this important?
The Mumbai railways division, which caters to over 75 lakh passengers daily, has been trying to keep pace with rapid urbanisation and unbridled development. It remains the singular most reliable mode of transportation for people in far-flung emerging suburbs.
The city and its working class population have shifted way beyond the city, with distant extended suburbs witnessing a massive population boom. This has rendered existing infrastructure inadequate and attempts to develop seem an exercise in catching up. Lack of emergence of good alternative modes of transportation options has meant that people here are heavily dependent on train services and even a slight delay has the potential to trigger major public outbursts.
Station development: Then and now
Mumbai had seen the Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme (SATIS) launched with much fanfare in 2007 with funding from the World Bank. That was meant to be a game changer in terms of decongesting the entire area around the railway stations.
Though the concept was great and prioritised overall commuter experience — right from the time one alights from a train to the last mile. The plans included options for bus, auto stands and even skywalks. However the project failed to take off beyond Thane and Andheri and lost its steam midway due to issues over funding emerging from the fall in dollar rates.
While railway stations have been developed for some time now, this is a very different initiative. “This is a more comprehensive initiative focused on improvement of the Railway area within the station and its entry/exit points,” says Sunil Udasi, chief press relations officer of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC).
“It aims to provide an enhanced commuter experience through provision of a deck, linking of all FoBs at the station through this deck and linkways, improved amenities, operational efficiency, and modernised infrastructure within the station premises creating additional space for better crowd management,” he adds.
Sunil explains that the station improvement project aims to maximise underutilised land and airspace at select stations to improve commuter movement at stations. A feasibility study for commercial development of railway stations had been conducted by Knight Frank India on behalf of MRVC in late 2022 for station improvement work at 17 stations and it underlined the commercial potential at nine stations.
“The deck spaces at these nine stations created by MRVC as part of station improvement can then be used by Railways for commercial development, including relocation of existing commercial stalls from platform areas freeing up space there for free commuter movement,” he explains.
The MRVC said that the stations were identified for this project on the basis of multiple parameters like passenger footfall and congestion levels, intermodal connectivity requirements, safety and accessibility challenges and finally scope for operational enhancement to meet the needs of a rising number of passengers and their aspirations.
Does it really meet passenger requirements, though?
Regular railway commuters like Mangala Waghe Khanvilkar, however, find all this talk about railway development irrelevant to the real mobility needs of the people. She finds the entire development more of an eye wash.
“While a bulk of the population has shifted to the extended suburbs, the facilities there have failed to keep up. Most of the railway stations in suburbs like Badlapur lack drinking water, are built unevenly and are not wide enough to meet the growing number of people,” she points out. Such needs have been completely disregarded in the larger scheme of things.
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With the huge population boom over the last decade or more, things often threaten to spiral out of control and when two trains arrive at the same time on a platform, Mangala says that it often creates a stampede-like situation. “The support infrastructure at the station like footover bridges too are so inadequate that people are forced to wait for almost ten minutes to get on the bridge at such times,” she adds.
This is also echoed by Madhu Kotian, President of Mumbai Rail Pravasi Sangh. “At Badlapur station, the crowds for fast trains swell so much that there is no place to stand at the platform and they tend to overflow into the foot over bridge,” he says.
Construction plans are also at odds with the needs of commuters. At Badlapur, the height of the railway tracks were initially raised which led to trains being perched at a higher level, forcing many commuters to struggle to board. The height of the platforms was subsequently raised by another contractor, and the mismatch between work carried out by different agencies or contractors has only added to the woes of the commuters. Work on another bridge too has been dragging on for years.
Similar complaints are raised by people in neighbouring stations like Vithalwadi, Ulhasnagar, Badlapur, Vangani, Khopoli etc.
Misplaced priorities
For passengers associations, who serve as the link between the railways and ordinary commuters, the steps outlined in the current plan are mere facelifts that fail to address long-term issues.
“How can the railways spend Rs 900 crores on this? While it may surely give the stations a good cosmetic makeover, what is more important is long-term infrastructure upgradation that has failed to keep pace with the rise in the number of commuters,” says Subhash Gupta, president of the Rail Yatri Parishad and former member of the National Railway Users Consultative Council.
Subhash feels that railways must focus on providing basic things; for example, improving the capacity of trains (like increasing the fleet size from 12 coaches to 15 coaches) and increasing the frequency of services. “This will enable quicker travel for commuters, provide a better commute experience and serve their needs well, rather than improve aesthetics of railway stations alone,” says Subhash.
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Madhu Kotian also points out how excessive thrust on commercial profit leads to anti-commuter policy decisions. “While the local trains don’t generate much revenue, the long distance and the goods trains bring in good revenue. So, many local trains are kept waiting during morning peak hours to make way for new long distance trains that have been introduced and prioritised over the local trains. This inconveniences the harried office-going commuters on the Central line.The railways are a public service and they should not prioritise commercial factors over commuters interests,” he says.
Instead of reaching out to hassled commuters in the new developing townships by upgrading facilities in such situations, the railways are busy spending on stations that do not really have that kind of footfall, he alleges.
Individual commuters as well as representatives of the passenger organisations do feel that aesthetics, comfortable accessways and airy waiting lounges have their own importance. But when the Railways has been struggling to provide basic facilities, prioritising such extraneous issues seems out of place for them.
“Railways are the soul of India. You cannot turn it into a commercial organisation, which it is not,” says Madhu.