New manager, new promises. R K Goyal, who was appointed divisional railway manager of the Mumbai division of Central Railway (CR) last month, in his first media briefing on Thursday said he had many ideas to improve the network and that he was looking at decongesting stations as his first priority. “There are many unnecessary things and stalls on crowded narrow island platforms that we will see if can remove. We can also look at widening platforms by shifting tracks wherever possible,” Goyal said.

He added that improvement was a continuous process, and the decongestion of stations would begin at Thane and Kalyan stations. “Kalyan station’s platforms 2 and 3, as well as platforms 5 and 6 of Thane station are in the initial phase of decongestion. We have already begun the process of shifting trains. Eighteen pairs of long-distance trains have already been moved to other platforms, and ten more pairs of long-distance trains currently handled by platforms 5 and 6 of Thane station will be shifted to platforms 7 and 8 soon to make room for suburban passengers,” he said.