To meet the requirements of increasing commuters,the Western Railway (WR) has started construction of a new building at the Andheri station. The two-storey structure would house three food plazas,reservation centres for long-distance trains and a concourse hall,apart from ticketing facility. Work for the new building is expected to get over by March next year. Over 3.61 lakh commuters use Andheri station everyday. According to Shyam Sunder Gupta,chief spokesperson of the WR,the ground floor of the building would have seven counters of Passengers Reservation System (PRS) and Unreserved Ticketing System (UTS) each. It would also have 650 sq metres concourse hall,food plaza,elevators and toilet especially for handicaps. The first and the second floor would have a waiting room,food plaza and space for offices. The second floor would also have 14 booking windows to avoid long queues. It would be connected to the proposed skywalks and south and central foot-over-bridges. Andheri stations booking office in the west has to give way for the proposed Andheri-Goregaon Harbour line extension under the Phase II of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The WR plans to build another office over tracks by constructing an elevated structure,once the existing office in the west is demolished.
