‘Prabhu’s wish to revamp Khar subway impractical’

Union minister Suresh Prabhu, who resides at Khar, has asked the authorities to revamp Khar subway, which is used by lakhs of vehicles, pedestrians and railway commuters. It will now have a rail overbridge (ROB) instead. The expansion and raising of the subway was being looked into, but this has been ruled out because of lack of space, and railway officials now see an ROB as the way out.

The minister had asked the Western Railway (WR) to work with the BMC to raise the floor height of the subway as it experiences heavy waterlogging during the monsoon and is no longer sufficient to handle the number of users that it once could.

The minister had made the announcement while inaugurating a foot over-bridge at Vile Parle station on April 22. Officials said that they were not able to find a way to increase the floor level and expand the subway as enough space is not available for the works. “The problem is that the subway is quite old and there is just no space to carry out any work. The only option is to build an ROB so that the traffic is distributed and especially when the subway usually gets clogged,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

Officials, however, have said that the minister’s wish may not come true due to the problems involved with the idea. “The minister came up with the ROB idea as his home is in Khar,” added the official.

Commenting on the matter, WR general manager said that they have been talking with the BMC officials and a survey was conducted for it as well. “We had sent our men as well as BMC engineers to inspect the subway but due to space constraints, we are planning to construct an ROB instead,” said Mr Agarwal.