After IIT-B report, Central Railway to dismantle 4 bridges in Mumbai

The Central Railway (CR) will re-examine and dismantle four foot overbridges (FoB) that are more than 50 years old – on each at Masjid Bunder railway station and Vidyavihar railway station – and two at Thane railway station.

The move comes after the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay — which was asked to audit bridges in the city after pedestrian pathway of Gokhale Bridge at Andheri railway station collapsed in July last year — submitted 30 reports on Tuesday.

“The FoBs that are more than 50 years old have been asked to be dismantled. However, we will be examining the bridges again so that we can look for alternatives for passengers before shutting them down,” said a senior CR official.

Two other FoBs at Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) and Kurla railway station were mentioned in the report to be dismantled. However, CR had already shut them last week.

“We had already shut down the bridges at Kurla railway staion and MPT last week, before it was the report was submitted,” added the railway official.

Recently, IIT-B had submitted its report on Byculla, Arthur Road, Currey Road and Ghatkopar RoB.

The team of experts from IIT-Bombay had asked the CR to remove load from the cantilever portion of the Currey Road station RoB.

The zonal railway will temporarily shut the cantilever portion of the Currey Road RoB to remove utilities, structures and slabs that have added to the burden of the bridge. It will then repair and strengthen the bridge.

Experts had also suggested barring heavy vehicles from using the RoB, imposing speed restrictions and so on.