At a time when railway officials as well as the state have said upgradation of station on Mumbai suburban to handle the growing crowd is the need of the hour, a survey conducted by the Tata Institute Social Science (TISS) of 1,000 women has ranked Govandi as the worst station in Mumbai in terms of availability and usability of amenities. Securing a surprising second place is Andheri, which ties with Dadar. The third place is a tie too, with Thane and Kalyan stations sharing the dubious honour.
The survey conducted was of 10 stations and most women commuters have said that they feel that the Govandi station has almost no amenities, pointing to the lack of signages and the fact that toilets on either side of platform no.1 are shut or unusable. Govandi station has been catergorised as a ‘C’ station as it sees only 58,842 commuters daily. The report states that basic amenities like running water is available only in two out of the 12 taps installed at the station. “Govandi station has no benches and the respondents during station audit said that the seating area is uncomfortable to use as it has no backrest. The lack of the above-mentioned amenities makes Govandi station the worst out of the 10,” the report said.
Andheri and Dadar stations come in at second place. Andheri and Dadar handle a crowd of 2,56,771 and 1,48,583 commuters daily respectively. But women have said that given the crowd that is seen on these stations, the infrastructure is not able to match it. “Andheri and Dadar stations rank poorly too because of the lack of platform sheds, quality of platforms, benches, narrow FOBs and staircases, and expensive toilet facility” stated the report.
Coming in third are Thane and Kalyan stations, which are both graded as A1 stations as they cater to local and outstation trains. “Thane station has the highest footfall amongst the 10 stations and despite the mandate under an A1 station, lacks a waiting room even when several express trains halt here. The parking area at Thane station is restricted to cycles and motorcycles,” the report said.
