Mumbai: City's civic and railway authorities seem to have failed to keep their promise of rebuilding a brand new bridge near the Sandhurst Road station on Harbour line after they demolished the 137-year-old Hancock Bridge in 2016.
Now, nearly after four years, forget about a permanent bridge, the authorities have failed to even put up a temporary makeshift structure in the area.
With no clarity as to when a new bridge would be constructed, residents are throwing caution to the winds and crossing the tracks on foot. In the absence of a proper bridge, it requires a minimum of two and a half hours to cross to the other side on foot.
Even the death of a teenager, soon after the bridge was razed by the BMC — who was crushed under a train while going to school via tracks — has failed to galvanise the authorities into action.
The situation, according to activist Kamlakar Shenoy, has not changed even after all these years. He has been following up the matter with the authorities since 2016.
He had also highlighted the matter before the Bombay High Court seeking at least a temporary bridge for citizens so that they are not compelled to use the railway tracks.
However, the authorities are dragging their feet over the construction of the bridge. “The technical part is over like finalising the designs etc. I can say that the BMC has done its job, though at a slower pace, but the railway authorities are just delaying the construction,” alleged Shenoy.
“As far as I know, the civic authority has started its work and has also paid somewhere around Rs 39 crore to the Railways. It has even brought in the girders and now only the installation work is left,” Shenoy added.
But the installation of girders is being delayed. “Two authorities need to give their final sanction. First is the chief engineer (bridges) and the commissioner of railway system (CRS). But I am told that the two authorities are just delaying the matter,” Shenoy claimed.
Though the girders are brought at the site, where the new bridge would be constructed, the authorities, however, are far behind their actual schedule plan.
“As per their own schedule, the girders were to be installed in October this year and by November, the bridge was to be thrown open for pedestrians and two-wheelers. But there is no sign of installation of the girders yet,” Shenoy said.
In all this, only the residents are suffering as they have to travel seven kilometres to reach the other side.
“Majority of services like schools, markets etc are on the other side. We are thus compelled to go there, at least once a day. But with no bridge, we have to travel via taxi or bus and it takes over two hours to reach there owing to the traffic,” said a resident.
Recently, Shenoy had hit the streets all alone demanding the bridge at the earliest.
