With a spacious pedestrian pathway, separate lanes for private and shared auto-rickshaws, new bus stops for BEST public transport, customised locations for drop off for private vehicles and cabs, a mini-park and digital signages, the area just outside Bandra west railway station is being revamped as part of a beautification project. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with Samir D’Monte, architect designer and planner, who is a resident of Bandra, is revamping the adjoining area on the west side of the 150 years old heritage structure of Bandra railway station.
The aim of this project is to ease the flow of traffic, create separate pedestrian pathways, improve the movement of the public and private transport and enhance accessibility for commuters. Samir D’Monte, who is designing the project said, “We have designed the project plan in such a way that there will be a new large pedestrian plaza in front of the station where people can safely move around and appreciate the heritage structure.”
D’Monte added, “We have designed four special customised bus stops, two on the station side and two on the other side, depending on where commuters want to go. We have organised proper auto-rickshaw pickup and drop stations, separate lanes for both private and share. There will be four auto-rickshaw lanes, two in each direction going towards Lucky Restaurant and Turner Road, one for private and one for public share auto-rickshaws. There will be covered queueing systems to protect commuters waiting for public transport from the sun, wind and rain.”
The project is designed by D’Monte and is being implemented by the BMC. Sushant Bagal, junior engineer of the BMC H-west ward working on the project, “We had done a case study and traffic survey on the area adjoining the Bandra west railway station. We are implementing this project with an aim to reduce traffic congestion and create a pedestrian-friendly space where commuters can walk to the station safely and get access to BEST buses easily.”
The project also aims to promote government and public transport systems such as BEST buses. Bagal said, “We aim to promote BEST bus services as the first preference for public transport followed by auto rickshaws. We will have separate lanes for auto-rickshaws and a separate pedestrian crossing so that there is no staggered crossing.”
In addition, the project will have digital signage and boards to reduce the need of traffic marshals for monitoring. D’Monte said, “We have tried to engineer the system that is full proof as far as possible into the design itself so that it does not rely on human monitoring. We have designed the system in a way where auto-rickshaws can only enter a designated lane with railings installed to prevent crossovers.”
Vinayak Vispute, Additional Municipal Commissioner of H-West ward, said, “We are executing this beautification project with an aim to improve the accessibility of commuters and pedestrians at the area adjoining Bandra west railway station. We aim to complete phase 4 of this project by March 2021.”
Bagal said that a BMC budget of Rs 1.5 crore approximately has been allotted for this project. Bagal said, “We began the project in 2016 with phase 1 of clearing and concreting the area, then we initiated phase 2 and now we are in phase 3. We also got some land plot from the railways on lease. A budget of Rs 1.5 crore approximately has been allotted for this project.” D’Monte said he had proposed this project to the authorities in 2010.
