A portion of the public foot over bridge (FOB) at Dadar railway station has been closed to pedestrians, after the civic body’s structural audit revealed the portion concerned was in an “extremely dila
A portion of the public foot over bridge (FOB) at Dadar railway station has been closed to pedestrians, after the civic body’s structural audit revealed the portion concerned was in an “extremely dilapidated” condition.
Earlier last month, the G/North ward office wrote a letter to the bridges department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) regarding the condition of the public bridge at Dadar station, following several complaints from residents and commuters.
Following this, the bridges department conducted a structural audit of the Dadar FOB which revealed a portion of the bridge, including the stairs exiting on the west side of the Dadar station, was “extremely dangerous.”
This part has been shut for pedestrians and the BMC has drafted a proposal for its repair. Work on the bridge will start soon and can be completed within two months, sources in the bridges department said.
A civic official of the bridges department associated with this project said, “The metal rods holding the staircase and the bridge have rusted completely. The concrete covering these rods has eroded and they are exposed. The entire portion is decaying, so it is unstable.”
Following this, the department has decided to inspect several bridges and their staircases at prominent railway stations across the city, including Kurla and Andheri stations, to ensure their stability.
Taking lessons from the Mahad bridge collapse tragedy on the Mumbai Goa highway that claimed over 20 lives, the BMC began structural audits of all 314 bridges in the city in September. The process will be complete in six months and will help the civic body determine which bridges are dilapidated, and in need of repair. A civic official of the bridges department said, “All bridges must be checked for stability with priority. We will begin this soon.”
The audit and repair of the public FOB at Dadar station is not part of the larger programme of auditing 314 bridges. A senior civic official said, “We will get an update about all 314 bridges within six months. The Dadar bridge repair is a separate incident which was looked into owing to constant complaints from pedestrians.”
