400-tonne girder for Carnac bridge left dangling from a crane

MUMBAI: In a major blunder, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) left a 400-tonne girder for the Carnac bridge dangling by the cables of a 700-tonne crane on the night of January 25-26 during a 6-hour block that got extended by five hours. This could not be rectified even on the night of January 26-27, and so an emergency block was taken on Monday night (January 27-28) between 12:30am and 4am.

What happened on Sunday?

The BMC, over the weekend, took up work of launching a girder for Carnac bridge as part of the second phase. Sources in Central Railway said that it seemed the BMC was not fully prepared for the work which led to a technical failure while pushing the 400-odd-tonne steel girder.

“The jack, which was holding the girder broke. Thereafter, even the roller which was being used to slide the girder onto the other end broke. There was a point when the girder tilted too close to the existing girder, almost dashing it. This was a major safety issue and so we asked them to take an emergency block on Monday afternoon, but they were not ready. Finally, permissions were sought to carry out the work on Monday-Tuesday night between 12:30am to 4am,” explained a senior CR official.

At the site, one could see the blue-coloured steel girder being held by the cables of a red-coloured crane towering next to the rail tracks. Until 10:30am on Sunday, the block taken by the BMC for launching girders at Carnac bridge continued, in which a worker was also injured.

Amit Saini, additional municipal commissioner, attributed the failure of the girder launch to a technical issue. “The night before yesterday, we tried to cover the arch of the girder but one of the rollers broke, leading to a technical issue. We were unable to complete the task. But 80 percent of the task was completed. When we get the next block, we will complete the remaining work,” he said.

According to CR officials, the extension of the 5 hours on Sunday morning (original block period was from 11:30pm to 5:30 am) led to short termination and delays in long distance trains. “Initially, we had accounted for delays in 19 long distance trains. But as the block extended, the total went up to 42 trains. This does not account for the suburban trains. As it was a public holiday, the inconvenience was limited,” said a CR official.

The Carnac bridge, which was built in 1866-67, was demolished in November 2022 and its first phase of reconstruction took place in October 2024. The new Carnac bridge has been designed to be 70 metres long and 26.5 metres wide, and the estimated cost is ₹55 crore. The first girders were launched in October 2023 and the bridge is expected to be opened for traffic before monsoon.