The issues related to Dadar station are not in a series but interrelated to each other. Every issue arises because of another one. these are some of my points of views which i wanna share with u people ...please read it & give ur views about this station which is one of the important station on mumbai railway ... tell me wht you think tht Dadar station lacking in ...as a national level statin ... please cooperate with me ..& really sorry if i hv mistaken anywhr ...or provided wrong info ...please help me to correct it ...& thnx all for reading my first blog ...bye

Demand of Dadar area… & increasing population:
The major issue amongst all is increasing demand of Dadar area. According to my observations people come to Dadar station for mainly following reasons:

To catch the train from central or western railway for a one line journey
Some people change there line of journey from central to western & vice versa
Some people come to Dadar by train so that they can catch bus from outside station to reach their destination, as many buses start & make their path via Dadar station area.
Dadar station & surrounding area is a good meeting place for people
One can get everything in & area surrounding the Dadar station right from a flower to a nokia mobile. People come here for shopping, especially during festival time.

There are three flows of people:
Moving from platform to platform
Moving from station to outside on either side of stations
people moving from east to west

Dadar was the first planned urban area of Mumbai, which was included in The Dadar-Matunga-Wadala-Sion scheme of 1899-1900. According to survey plan it was designed for housing of 60000 people, and now the population of Dadar area has gone to 4, 83,806 in (G/N WARD)& 5,21,094(G/S WARD )according to 1991 survey of municipal corporation .
Dadar was a well planned residential area initially which became industrial area later on with coming new mills in & around area of Dadar. As Dadar was facilitated with various schools, colleges & recreational areas, such as cinema theatres, drama theatres, hotels …so the flow of people always went increasing towards Dadar time by time. Still people in Mumbai are gratefull if they have a home in Hindu colony or Parsi colony in Dadar, cause one can get calmness, with all kind of facilities near by only …that too in central Mumbai. Various shops were opened in Dadar , providing with good & cheaper quality stuff (as Dadar was surrounded by mill land area the people were poor or from middle class) …as all northern suburb of Mumbai was in development stage there were less no. of facilities provided and Dadar was a halting stand for all such people ,cause people going to northern suburbs such as Borivli, Dombivli even Andheri used to come Dadar station by slow train or by bus from various places in Mumbai & then used to move towards their destinations by fast trains …which culture is still going on.
Earlier W.R. was till Vasai …then went till Virar & now till Dahanu road …where as C.R. also made its way till Karjat & Kasara via Thane & Kalyan , which of course increased more flow of people to Dadar station. In the year 1968 , Dadar terminus got inaugurated by late president Morarji Desai ; and after that flow of people from various parts of India turned towards Dadar railway station .As people were increasing no. of commercial hubs in Dadar also increased & invited more number of people ...& other stuff like hawkers.

Hawkers:
Dadar was no more only residential zone …it was turned into commercial hub of central Mumbai & mill land area. In 1860’s also people used to come to south Mumbai right from Vasai & Kasara or even farther; used to change their slow train to fast train in Dadar. These people were mill workers or building workers, hence poor! Buying stuff in any shop or eating in hotel was one of great enjoyment for people in middle class of that era. Even people in near by station area living was more & every one had habit to buy their cooking & other stuff by the time going home. This situation started the phenomenon of ‘Hawkers’.
Even Dadar had a whole sale market its own ..then also people used to buy vegetables from hawkers just because it was easier to them to buy stuff there & go to home earlier. Even one cannot get things in small amount in wholesale & even cant do bargaining over there both of which facilities were provided by hawkers. Dadar is a central hub for even cultural. Dadar market is where you can get anything from green veggies to a two hundred rupee sonata ghadi [watch] to fake live strong bands [in any colour] to a pethani saree. In one such gulley [lane] is Dadar’s phool [flower] market. Roses, chrysanthiums, marigolds, jasmine, gladiolas, asters, lilies, gerberas, carnations are a few things that line its narrow walls; which is no more only a gulley. Slowly, slowly these hawkers came over the bridges & platforms of railway station creating awkward condition to pedestrians.



The Dadar area is always over crowded & in order to minimize the traffic conjunction it has become necessary to remove the hawkers from the roads & footpaths. The removal action of the hawkers was started & therefore Hawker’s Union approached to the Court. The Honorable Supreme Court has given directives in Writ Petition 5602-5605/1983 to create hawking non-hawing zones. Since there was no suitable place for making hawking zone in Dadar (west) area & therefore proposal was submitted for construction of Hawkers Plaza by redeveloping K.N. Patil Market, Dadar. The Standing Committee has accorded sanction to the said proposal vide Resolution No. 1747 of 27/03/98 & accordingly the first phase of Hawkers Plaza has been completed & within a short period all the eligible Hawkers will be shifted in the Hawkers Plaza & roads & footpaths will be cleared.

Beggars:
Hawkers sale their stuff & gain money but increasing population in India made people to beg. There is no such place at least in Mumbai where we can’t find a beggar… Dadar can’t be apwaad for that! There are number of beggers in & around the Dadar station who live alone or even with their family (they can have a company with a name abc & sons!!!). For such people Dadar is their home, some of them are from nearer slum area named Ambedkar Nagar. These beggars stand in the way of ticket line or near by food stalls … touch people & ask for money …no one ask them for any ticket as if station is open for all. But the worst situation is more than 60% of them are childrens below age of 12 or so … in the age of learning they are going to make their life worst.
The worst part of this issue is these people are increasing criminalism. One can see many times beggars lying down on the ground near by ticket window & on bridges cause of drugs. There are many offsets in Dadar station & around area where these people take drugs! Many times these people get caught during doing pocket keeping! & some times these beggars go under the train while doing trespassing. Some of beggars also collect recyclables lying on station.
These are illiterate, addicted (some of them) ….but there are some organizations like Shelter for children Don Bosco working for them to make them literate & to take them away from drugs …teaching to live there life better than they are living now. Only beggars are not the reason to increase criminalism & illegal things in this area but it’s vice versa. Even the increasing population has helped for increasing no. of beggars in this area.

Illegal constructions:
The sky touching rates of Dadar area has made people to shift towards northern suburbs & to make slums in & around area. Slum area provided Dadar beggars, thieves & other illegal constructions. We can see many temples, such as hanuman temple outside station near by Dadar terminus or some small temple & slums in the buffer area between W.R. & C.R.
As the religious stuff is involved no one can dare to demolish these illegal structures …When any festival is there, no one can stop these illegal people from making there temporary stages & halls on the road in front of terminus; making hard to walk for people & even hard to drive vehicles, making traffic jam. These structures of course affected the development of Dadar station.

The patchy development of Dadar station:
Dadar is one of the busiest station in Mumbai. It’s a junction & divides Dadar area into East & West. If train is Mumbai’s life line then Dadar is Mumbai’s heart. If it stops for a while also whole lifeline collapses! So may be this is the first reason why Dadar had a patchy development! Even Indian rail was not enough capable of providing good equipments & was not enough capable to provide money to construct whole Dadar station & destroy the earlier one. Another reason behind such a development is the works of railways in Mumbai is never done by an architect, even after independence they are done by engineers of railways. And development done time by time as need felt, that too done by various engineers.
Earlier time Dadar had only three island platforms including G.I.P. , B.B.& C.I. & one platform for long distance trains, with length of 7 rakes; whereas now, there are 6 platforms on W.R. & 8 platforms on C.R. with length of 12 rakes. And to connect these platforms there are number of bridge provided. During the travel of IR from 7 to 12 rakes population traveling daily also increased …& no. of bridges also hence all bridges built are with different technology & levels. Actually there are only 3(one of which is municipal bridge) bridges which cover whole station i.e. W. R. & C. R. both others are just connection between few platforms on either lines. As these bridges are at very much higher level about (12 -15 m).A person traveling by slow train if he want to catch another fast train getting down then for him its rarely possible to get that train so people do trespassing . The behavior of people has decided by the nature of architecture … bridges are always crowded with hawkers it’s really hard to a person to walk through & reach to its destination on time. On municipal bridge there is no roof also hence in rainy season all bridge flood with colorful umbrellas.

Facilities:
Due to increased population & increased services there are very less no. of facilities on Dadar railway station, or not provided & if provided not properly as per standards:

As no. of platforms increases there was no more space remained in Dadar station to increase length of platforms for 12 rake trains ; hence at some points platform has less than 2.5 m width. Many times people get injured on these platforms due to bouncing on wall or bridge in rush hour.
As all platform width is less within which they have kept legal stall holders, which makes more difficult during peak hours.
At some places width of bridge is just 1.2 m., which is not recommended 4 any public space.
There is no ramp provided for platforms not even for terminus.
Ticket counters are less in nos. & space provided for them is not enough
No waiting room on W.R. On C. R. there are two for ladies & gents but with only one toilet & without any maintenance
No. of sittings are not enough as one can see ‘musical chairs’ going on station.
No proper signage given on stations …a person has to travel almost every platform to catch any service or even any staff.
There are only 4 small public toilets are provided for the passenger on western railway
out of which one has only urinals , other toilets are also provided 1-2 WC’s & 3-4 urinals
on platform no. 4,5,6 there no toilets at all
On the central line there are only 4-5 toilets with same situation as that of western line.
There are few public toilets outside of station which remain always full.
3-4 drinking fountains are provided in whole station
There is no canteen provided to people but , some legal stalls of food are there as we can see on every station of Mumbai. These stalls are really in a bad condition the place where they cook is not at all hygienic. Well people in need still eat there.
All staff is spread over station and they have no connection other than telephone
There is no staff canteen; even more than 100 people work over Dadar station
There is no provision of conference room or special guest rooms for VIP’s.
No provision for extra platform
No provision for physically challenged people
No parking provision is done

wht u think Dadar station is lacking in ...??

u can also mail me at amixtrafst@gmail.com

Thnx for reading my blog!!!