Non-Functional escalators at Thane Rly Station, Mumbai Division, CR

Station Manager not monitoring the functioning of Escalators & ATVMs

Thane: Over 6 lakh commuters travel from Thane Railway Station every day to their various destinations on CR & WR’s Suburban System. In addition to the Suburban train commuters lakhs of passengers undertake to and fro journey to various destinations of the IR by the Long Distance Trains which halt at Thane Railway Station. The citizens of Thane thank the Railway Administration for providing the facility of the Escalators as they provide some degree of respite/relief to the commuters especially to those suffering from diseases of knee, spine.

From time to time various newspapers have published reports regarding Non-Functional Escalators at the Railway Station. Going by the incidents of Non-Functional Escalators at a major station such as Thane, it is evident that the Railway Administration is not serious about alleviating the hardships caused to the commuters as a result of the Non-Functional Escalators, especially during peak hours.

In case of Thane Railway Station, the concept of “Peak Hours” has ceased to be relevant now as throughout the day the station is flooded with passengers hence it is the duty of Railway Administration to ensure that items of infrastructure such as the Escalators provided recently at various platforms are in a working condition for a major part of the day. ‘I have been informed by many commuters that the Lifts which have been provided at the Thane Railway Station are seldom or rarely in working conditions advanced stage of pregnancy. As the Hard Earned money of the commuters has been spent in the installation of the Escalators, Lifts it is imperative.’ A railway activist Ramchandra Karve told ‘Railway Samachar’ in an email.

He also told that Facility of lifts is of great help to the Physically Handicapped Persons, persons suffering from disorders of Knee and Spine and to the Ladies who are in a that these facilities are maintained properly for which the Contractors are paid out of public funds.

He said It has been observed by me that during evening peak hours at least one or two escalators used for ascending/climbing the FOBs are non-functional thereby causing severe hardships to the commuters. This has been reported to me by many commuters as well who know me by virtue of various issues which I have been taking up for them for over a decade.

He writes that on Friday the 6th April 2018, after alighting from the train on platform No. 1 of Thane Railway station around 18.45 hours fortunately for me the Escalator on Platform No. 1 was operational. As I reside in Thane East normally I descend the steps of the CST end FOB leading to platform Nos 3 & 4 and walk to the Escalator installed on the said platforms.

On the said day I thought of descending the steps of CST end FOB and again ascended the stairs in order to ascertain whether the Escalators for ascending and descending which have been provided to the said FOB and landing inside the premises of Thane East Ticket Office and opposite Food Plaza were operational. It was observed by me that the Escalator provided for descending the stairs was not operational.

As I normally happen to travel to Thane by the slow CST-Thane trains during Peak evening hours, said trains terminate mostly on platform no. 1. Whenever it is observed by me that the Escalator provided on platform No. 1 is not operational I report the same immediately to the Station Manager who then makes an announcement to the Escalator operator to attend to the snag in it.

it needs to be mentioned here that it is not my duty to draw the attention of the Station Manager to the Non-Functional Escalators. monitoring functioning of the Escalator facility is the job of the Station Manager and his Assistants who are paid salaries for it and their Non-Monitoring working of the infrastructure amounts to gross negligence on their part in the discharge of their duties for which necessary departmental action needs to be taken against them, he said.

He also said that I on behalf of the commuters request the Central Railway Administration to ensure that the Escalators and LiIfts provided at the Thane Railway station are in a working condition.