Mumbai: Western Railway (WR) has started the work of launching the second girder of the Delisle road overbridge (ROB) in Lower Parel. After the work is completed the east side of the ROB will be handed over to the BMC for rebuilding. Accordingly, the civic body will start the work on the approach road which is expected to complete in four months, said civic officials on Thursday.
The ROB is a key link and the only pathway to the Lower Parel office district for rail commuters who live in the eastern suburbs. It is also a point of entry and exit for commuters from Lower Parel railway station, the east-west link for motorists, and used by pedestrians.
The first part of the bridge was completed in June 2022 while the final girder was being placed above the rail lines on Thursday-Friday night. Due to this a power and traffic block of four hours was taken on all lines at Lower Parel from 01.10 am to 05.10 am on the intervening night of September 15 and 16. As a result, six local trains were completely cancelled and equal number of services were partially cancelled.
According to Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, WR, “The work of the first girder has been completed, while the work of launching the second girder started on Wednesday and is expected to be completed by Monday. We will then hand over the east side of the approach of ROB to the BMC".
A team comprising 20 officers and over 100 labourers are deployed for the task. The bridge is constructed with open web girder (OWG) design and the weight of each girder is 1040 metric tonnes. Satish Thosar, chief engineer, BMC's bridge department said, “We will start work on the approach road next month. We have planned to complete the work in the next four months, so we can expect to open the bridge by March 2023.”
The ROB was found unsafe during a safety audit in July 2018. It was then decided that the work of dismantling and rebuilding of the railway portion will be done by WR and the work of approaches dismantling and rebuilding will be executed by the BMC.
