Western Railway shuts pedestrian pathway

MUMBAI: After the collapse of the pedestrian pathway of Andheri’s Gokhale Bridge on Tuesday, the Western Railway (WR) has closed down the Kalanagar pedestrian pathway in Bandra (east) on Thursday night and is also expected to close down the Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Vasai from Saturday night as it  has been found to be unsafe.

A joint team of IIT professors, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officer and Railway officers conducted an inspection on Friday of the Gokhale Bridge. Around 12 railway track crossovers, which are used by suburban trains to change their routes, were badly damaged due to this pathway collapse, leading to cancellation of 23 services from Andheri to Churchgate since Tuesday.

The WR has written a letter to police officials in Vasai to stop the ROB for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Structural engineer, Jamshed Sukhad-walla said, “All steel structures including railway must be inspected for corrosion and appropriate anti-corrosive treatment by coating or cathodic protection to be adopted to increase the life and prevent loss of lives in case of public
utility.”       

A senior officer of WR said that we have requested to shut pathway of Kalanagar road over bridge as its design has flaws and was not approved by the railways. He claimed, “Kalanagar ROB was constructed in 1961 and it was widen in 2015.The original pathway was three meter long which was then reduced to 1.5 meters. The remaining 1.5 meter was then merged with the road, due to which the load of the vehicular traffic was shifted on cantilever which was meant for baring pedestrian load.”

 “We are having a correspondence with the BMC from last five to six months to stop the pathways of Kalanagar, but the corporation has informed that the bridge belongs to Public Works Department (PWD) now,” he added.

The WR had written a letter in 2015 raising their objection for the same. In the letter, they  had asked corporation not to allow the vehicles on the cantilever portion.       

In the joint inspection of the Gokhale Bridge on Friday evening, the methodology of the audit of the remaining bridges was expected to be decided. However, a officer, who is part of the team, said, “As we have been receiving continuous calls from the traffic police department, we would allow them to open north side of Gokhale Bridge for carriageways.   

Mukul Jain, Divisional Regional Manager (DRM) said, “We have closed the pedestrian section of the ROB Kalanagar as we feel that the portion is unsafe. We had earlier written to BMC about the same. Now we shall also be informing the PWD.”

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