Mumbai, June 18: The Central Railway has commissioned the newly- constructed platform today to decongest the rush at Parel station. Reportedly,  the railways carried out the last leg of the project on Sunday during the eight-hour mega block. The platform had been constructed after 23 people lost their lives in the Elphinstone stampede that took place on September 29 last year. Allegedly, a rumour triggered the stampede on the footover bridge where the crowd had gathered due to sudden rains. After the incident, the public and several city-based activists slammed the railways who didn't heed the repeated complaints about the narrow over bridge.

The Parel station earlier had a single platform; however, with the addition of the new platform, the crowd is expected to disperse and cause less congestion. The platform has been made operational from Monday onwards and local train services towards Kalyan and Karjat will be operated from this platform. The Indian Express quoted Sunil Udasi, the chief spokesperson of the Central Railway as saying,“The new platform is one step closer to the development of Parel terminus. The platform will certainly help in crowd decongestion and benefit commuters to a great extent."

The newly-constructed platform will be connected to a 12-metre long bridge to Elphinstone Road station on the Western Railway, to help commuters cross over easily. Reportedly the bridge will be the third one for passengers after army constructed one, which was thrown open to public earlier.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 18, 2018 05:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).