The Central Railway has planned to divert its passenger-crowd from CST’s first or main entry to its second entry, which is normally avoided by passengers and wears a deserted look most of the time.
In order to get passengers to use the second entry, which faces P D’Mello Road, CR has decided to create additional facilities at the point. The facilities include catering services, rail information display panels and pay-and-park for four wheelers. CR has already started the paper work and hopes to finish installing these additional facilities soon.
According to CR officials, the pay-and-park facility will be very close to the newly-built freeway, and will hence, be more viable.
A senior official of the CR said, “We have constantly been working toward optimum utilisation. Since the second entry is not being utilised to its optimum capacity, we are shifting some catering stalls to platform 18. We are also planning to provide other passenger-friendly initiatives at platform no. 18, which accommodate longer trains of 24 coaches,” said the official, adding that the process of installation of these facilities has already begun. The CR has also decided to create a taxi-stand at the second entry point so that passengers can directly disperse from there.
Apart from this, the CR also has sufficient parking space near the second entry and the tendering process has started for parking of over 150 four-wheelers in the 1,500 square metres of unoccupied land. “When the plan comes into force, it would be a win-win situation for all. Passengers will get additional facilities and the CR will get revenue. Overall, passenger flow will be rationalised,” said Atul Rane, chief PRO of CR.