Mumbai: Western Railways closes two bridges for structural examination

The pedestrian pathway along the Bandra-Mahim road overbridge was shut on Thursday night. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Three days after part of a road overbridge (ROB) collapsed at Andheri station, injuring five, the Western Railway has now taken the precaution of shutting down two possibly dangerous bridges over railway lines. The pedestrian pathway along the Bandra-Mahim ROB was already cordoned off late on Thursday night, while the entire north-bound ROB at Vasai was scheduled to be closed last night.

Mukul Jain, divisional railway manager at WR, said, "There are inherent faults in the design of the pedestrian pathway bridge along Bandra highway, which is cantilevered in design, like the Andheri ROB that collapsed. "The design does not have the approval of the railways. We had conveyed this to the authorities that built the bridge, and also alerted the BMC about it. Since there has been no response from them for some months now, we have decided to shut it down for examination." BMC officials told this paper that the bridge falls under the Public Works Department (PWD).

The north-bound Vasai ROB is to be shut on Friday night. Pic/Hanif Patel

"The Vasai bridge is also an area of concern. We found that the columns at the base did not look good, and we would like to examine them structurally. If they are found fit, we will recommend opening the bridge again," added Jain. At the Central Railway (CR), the authorities have decided to demolish a dilapidated foot overbridge (FOB) at Tilak Nagar on Sunday. The bridge was not in public use and had been abandoned for quite some time. As for the audit of bridges, Jain said the joint teams of BMC and IIT would prepare an inspection schedule and visit all the bridge sites. The audit team includes experts such as Prof Ravi Sinha from the civil engineering department of IIT.

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