The Andheri east elevated auto-deck that was originally built at a cost of '10 crore to diffuse thousands of passengers getting out of local trains at Andheri station, will now house an ATM and an Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Catering (IRCTC) hotel after being taken over by hawkers.
With Andheri station recording the highest number of footfalls (6.04 lakh passengers per day) on Western Railway (WR), the plan was that auto-rickshaws would enter from Swami Nityanand Road, just in front of the BEST depot at Agarkar Chowk, and then move onto the two-lane elevated deck which is 60-metre long and 34-smetre widewith a walk path on either side.
A railway official on condition of anonymity said, “The auto-deck was supposed to be one of the finest examples of how heavy loading passenger stations should diffuse the crowd but unfortunately, you are aware that the auto-rickshaws are unable to come up the deck because it is filled with either drug addicts or hawkers. Even if the hawkers are gone by late night, the presence of drug addicts is enough to scare commuters into not coming to that side.”
If successful, WR officials were planning to have similar such decks at other important stations such as Bandra (west). However, with failure of the Andheri auto-deck, the plan was essentially dropped. Construction of the auto-deck lasted from 2011 to December 2013 when it was elevated and hence, the decision comes after almost one and a half year after the launch.
