A week after the CSMT bridge collapse, five foot overbridges (FOBs) at suburban stations in Bhandup, Kurla, Vikhroli, Diva, and Kalyan will be dismantled by the Central Railway from next week.
According to Mumbai Mirror, the Central Railway has floated tenders a month ago and the dismantling work will start from next week and will be finished by the end of April. The chief public relations officer, Central Railway, Sunil Udasi, told the leading daily that, the decision to dismantle these bridges had been taken well in advance.
Last year, the Railway minister Piyush Goyal announced that structural audits of all road overbridges (ROB) and foot overbridges in Mumbai will be carried out by IIT experts. A Central Railway officer told the leading daily, “Till date, the IIT-Bombay team has inspected 81 of the 89 ROBs, 178 of the 191 FOBs, and 17 of the 19 other structures in CR’s suburban section. The remaining 23 structures will be inspected.”
A total of 178 FOBs were audited, out of which 146 were totally safe, two were found unsafe for which the CR closed those FOBs and currently the demolition is underway. The IIT-B team also suggested that 30 FOBs needed maintenance work out of which five will be dismantled. A CR official told the leading daily, “Of the five which will be dismantled, the replacements of four FOBs have already been constructed. The construction of a new FOB at Kurla (in place of the old one) is already planned, and tenders for the construction have been invited. After completing the demolition, construction work on the new FOB will start immediately.”
Last week, six people were killed and over 30 injured after a portion of the overbridge near the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station collapsed on the evening of March 14.
