Parel – Prabhadevi railway station is a Railway station junction which connects the Central line and Western line of

Mumbai Suburban Railway The Mumbai Suburban Railway ( Marathi: मुंबई उपनगरीय रेल्वे) (colloquially called local trains or simply locals) consists of exclusive inner suburban railway lines augmented by commuter rail on main lines ser ...

. It serves the area of

Parel Parel (ISO: Paraḷ, pronunciation: əɾəɭ is a neighbourhood of Mumbai. Parel used to have a number of textile mills, but these have been replaced by commercial office space development. History Originally, Parel was a separate island, ...

and

Prabhadevi Prabhadevi (Pronunciation: ɾəbʱaːd̪eʋiː is a small up-scale southern neighbourhood of Mumbai, situated between Dadar to the north, Worli to the south and the Arabian Sea to the west. The area derives its name from the 300 year old Prab ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India. This railway station has seven platforms, of which two are on the Prabhadevi side and the remaining platforms are on the Parel side with the middle one is a terminal platform and two platforms on the far east is for fast trains line, both sides are of only slow trains halt.

Passengers

Parel and Prabhadevi railway stations are a set of one of the busiest stations on the Mumbai Suburban Railway network. Over 15.6 million passenger's journey originates from either of these stations, earning yearly, due to offices being situated around these railway stations.

History

Parel side

The railway station on the Parel side was opened to the public in 1877 for direct connectivity from

to other stations on the Central Railway network. On 4 March 2019, the terminal platform on the slow line of the Parel side was inaugurated by

Piyush Goyal Piyush Vedprakash Goyal (born 13 June 1964) is a politician, chartered accountant and cabinet minister of the Government of India having portfolios such as Minister of Textiles, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Consumer Affa ...

(Minister of Railways) for reducing the higher passenger pressure load at

Dadar railway station Dadar railway station is one of the major interchange railway stations of Mumbai Suburban Railway. It serves the Dadar area in Mumbai, India. This railway station lies on both the Central line named as Dadar Central with station code DR and ...

. Which it was demanded for many years by the people for easier access on the Central side.

Prabhadevi side

The railway station on the

side was inaugurated in 1867 which was named Elphinstone Road railway station (with station code EPR) after the

Lord Elphinstone Lord Elphinstone is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created by King James IV in 1510. History The title of Lord Elphinstone was granted by King James IV in 1510 to Sir Alexander Elphinstone of Elphinstone, who was killed at the Battle of ...

, which was the

Governor of Bombay Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...

from 1853 to 1860. After the Independence, the local people demanded the railway station rename to Prabhadevi. This renaming was first proposed by Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote in 1991. Which comes from the Hindu goddess Prabhavati Devi. A 12th-century idol of the goddess is installed inside an 18th-century

Prabhadevi Temple Prabhadevi Temple, also known as Prabhavati Devi Temple , is a Hindu temple located in the Prabhadevi area, near Dadar, Mumbai. The idol representing the main deity, Prabhavati Devi, dates back to the 12th Century. The temple itself, though, was ...

locates near the station. For that purpose, the Maharashtra Assembly passed the resolution on 16 December 2016. After that, Maharashtra Government sent a proposal for renaming the station to Union Home Ministry which it was approved on 6 May 2017. After the approval, the name of ''Elphinstone Road railway station'' was officially changed to ''Prabhadevi railway station'' on 19 July 2018. with its new station code as PBHD with the approval of Indian Railways

Foot-over-bridges

Due to the super-dense crush load on this station, two foot overbridges are constructed between the southern part of the Parel side and the northern part of the Prabhadevi side for easier interchanging between these platforms. Both of them were constructed in 2018. Before that, there was only one foot overbridge that was narrower in width and older than 50 years, This created problems for commuters during peak hours. Due to this, commuters used to cross the tracks on to the adjoining platform 3 and use the FOB of that platform. This prompted the Railways to put up a fence between the platforms in order to stop commuters from crossing the tracks. This has increased the pressure on the overbridge even more and hence forced the Railways into assigning the

Railway Protection Force Railway Protection Force is a security force under the ownership of Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India established by the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957; enacted by the Indian Parliament for "the better protection ...

and

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

to help commuters cross the bridge and prevent any stampedes and also help to approach trains. For that purpose, the first foot overbridge was reconstructed by the joint operation of the Corps of Engineers of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

and

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

and opened on 27 February 2018, within the time span of 117 days. Whereas the second foot overbridge was newly constructed to reduce the load on the first foot overbridge and make a second interchange on this station, Opened for the public on 18 June 2018.

Stampede

On 29 September 2017 during the morning rush-hour, a stampede occurred at the western side of foot overbridge on the Parel–Prabhadevi railway station. 23 people were killed, 19 injured and 39 suffered other injuries. The incident was classified as a case of an accident by the Mumbai Police.

References

{{Mumbai - Suburban Railway, Western Railway stations opened in 1867 1867 establishments in India Mumbai WR railway division Railway stations in Mumbai City district Mumbai Suburban Railway stations Mumbai CR railway division