Mumbai: The railways have been trying to upgrade the amenities available across railway stations in Mumbai under the Station Redevelopment Programme, which includes passenger facilities like lifts, escalators, water coolers, Wi-Fi access and toilets.
One of the highlights of the plan is to introduce hygienic bio-toilets in long distance trains that leave from the terminal stations like CSMT, Bandra, Kalyan and Borivali. These toilets come with a technology that breaks down human waste into odourless and easily disposable waste. One of the major reasons behind this is that fact that human waste is often left behind on the tracks, corroding them slowly.
Maintaining passenger amenities has been at the heart of the plan to revamp important stations in the city like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Bandra Terminus (BDTS), Mumbai Central, Andheri, Churchgate and Kalyan.
Water coolers and bottle vending machines have been placed on stations of both Central as well as Western Railways. Bottle crushing machines too have been put up for inculcating a sense of recycling among the commuters.
The railways have also tried to rope in Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) for a few stations like Bandra and Kurla.
An official said, “We are currently in talks with MMRDA as to what can be done from their end, either they themselves can be involved or introduce us to corporates who can help us flush in some of these amenities in more numbers under the corporate social responsibility scheme.”
