Allow rickshaws to ply till Sion hospital instead of Sion station: Union
The union has demanded the extension on the grounds that patients & relatives are forced to get down at Sion station and take a cab or bus to travel the last mile (Representational Image, Courtesy: topsimages.com)
A union of rickshaw drivers in the city has demanded that autos be allowed to ply till Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, more commonly known as Sion hospital, for the public’s benefit.
At present, autos are barred from entering the city due to which they can only ply till Bandra flyover near Mahim and Sion station.
Their termination at Sion station poses a serious problem for hundreds of patients and relatives, who have to get down and either find a cab or wait for a bus to travel to the civic hospital.
Unfortunately, both prove ineffective as taxi drivers seldom agree to the fare given the distance (about 1.8 km) and buses are infrequent and often crowded.
In wake of the inconvenience, the newly formed BJP transport union ‘Nav Bharatiya Shivvahtuk Sanghatana’ has sought an extension of auto services till Sion hospital.
“We have demanded that government, especially the state transport ministry, should give us permission to ply autorickshaws till Sion hospital,” the union’s all-India vice president Maqbool Mujawar told The Times of India.
Maqbool stated that the service’s extension will make life easier for people from Bandra, Kurla, Mankhurd and other nearby areas, for whom Sion hospital is the closest civic-run facility.
“We have got requests from several drivers from Kurla and Mankhurd who regularly face problem dropping patients at Sion Hospital and have to leave them mid-way,” he added.
Apart from providing direct last mile connectivity, the union has also sought approval for an auto stand near the hospital gate as it would make the commute to the suburbs easy for patients and their relatives.
