'Daily Struggle, Stampede-Like Situation': Agitated Badlapur Commuters Lash Out At Railway Authorities After Platform Fencing Causes Chaos In Peak Hours
In a sudden move, the Central Railway barricaded the platform no 1 at Badlapur railway station earlier this week, resulting into chaos and commotion on the newly-constructed home platform (1A) and platform no 2. While the demand for more trains during peak hours had already been falling on deaf ears over the past few years, the commuters of Badlapur now have another reason to worry and complain about.
Commuters, who until last week, could board the trains originating from Badlapur from both platforms 1 and 1A, are now being forced to crowd on platform no 1A only, which is still not fully equipped to handle the crowd, considering the incomplete work, debris dumped on the side for almost a year now, broken tiles on the 'new' platform, and a dangerously wide gap between the platform and the train footboard.
"Earlier, having access to board trains from both sides helped ease crowd pressure significantly. The closure of one platform has led to severe overcrowding, turning train boarding into a panic-driven and unsafe experience. With rising commuter pressure, people face daily chaos -- rushing, pushing, and even stepping over fallen passengers, especially during peak hours. What was once a manageable routine has now become a daily mental and physical struggle," Juili Shirwadkar, a regular commuter of the 6:52 am CSMT fast local from Badlapur, told Free Press Journal.
Prashant Waygankar, another office-goer who travels to and from Badlapur to Dadar during the peak hours, shared, "While our mornings have become a mess, it only gets worse in the evening when we return home all exhausted from the day's work. The trains are already crowded due to the low frequency, so you're pushed out into the platform as soon as Badlapur station arrives. But since the entire crowd is deboarding on just one platform, stampede-like situations arise almost every day with people trying to make their way out of the crammed platform and rush home."
"The work at the Badlapur station has been going on for two years now. The lifts and escalators, which are now being used as an excuse to cordone off platform 1 should have been installed long back in the first place. Every day, we are forced to jump into the train with the constant fear of protecting ourselves from slipping into the gap between the platform and the footboard, and at the same time not losing our balance and tumbling on someone else. All of this will be solved if the authorities just increase the number of trains to and from Badlapur during rush hours," Sneha Shirsat, an agitated commuter rued.
Meanwhile, CR officials have maintained that the barricading of platform no 1 has been done to speed up the process of installing facilities like lift, escalators and a new staircase. On the other hand, the first and foremost thing that the commuters seem to want is increase in the number of trains, which according to them, can solve the problem of overcrowding in Badlapur trains, which has emerged to be a residential hub in the north of Kalyan.
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