Mumbai: Work begins on Kings Circle height gauge barrier

The Central Railway on Wednesday began the foundation work for a new height gauge barrier on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road near Sion hospital. The work is likely to be completed within a week, railway officials said. The fabrication work will begin after this and is likely to be completed in the next 15 days.

After the traffic police issued a work permit on Tuesday, the officials from Central Railway visited the site on Wednesday and began the civil work.

"Erection of a height gauge barrier can be an interim measure to reduce such incidences, but as a permanent solution like lowering of the road below the Kings Circle bridge is must," said a retired Transport Department official adding that nearly 70 percent of instances damaging the height gauge barriers occurred in the middle lanes, which are around 60 centimeter higher than the first and fourth lane.

"In May 2022 a meeting was conducted with the BMC’s City Engineering (Road and Traffic) Department. During the meeting it was decided that as an immediate measure, the Traffic authority will restrict entry of heavy vehicles in the middle lanes. Apart from that, the possibility of lowering the road surface level of middle lanes by at least 0.30 meter was also discussed. They agreed that it had to be done on priority.

Since January 2019, 20 cases of damage to height gauge barriers of Kings Circle railway bridge have been reported posing threat to the passengers safety. This is one of the important and old rail over bridges of the city, which makes way for the harborline trains. According to Railway officials, out of 20 cases, 15 were reported in the third lane which have a minimum clearance of 4.3 meter. This is less than the standard norms of Indian Road Congress which makes a minimum clearance of 5 meters mandatory on the main roads connecting to highways.

Raising the road in the middle lanes to avoid flooding during monsoon has decreased the clearance height.