G K Gokhale bridge collapse: Western Railway shuts traffic on four bridges, Central Railways razes Tilak Nagar bridge

On the Central Railway section, the railways had temporarily shut a part of Pant Nagar ROB in Ghatkopar West on Sunday after cracks were noticed in one of its walls. Another “old and redundant” ROB near Tilak Nagar station on the harbour line was demolished by the CR on Sunday.

Nearly a week after the G K Gokhale Road overbridge between Andheri and Vile Parle stations on the Western Railway (WR) collapsed, claiming one life, the railways has shut passenger and vehicular movement on four road and foot overbridges. Of the six inspected on the Western Railway section till Sunday, the railways has temporarily shut movement on four bridges, including a skywalk, identified as “structurally weak or corroded”.  The four bridges include the G K Gokhale bridge, southern side footpath of the Kalanagar road overbridges between Mahim and Bandra stations, a road overbridge (ROB) near Vasai railway station and a portion of the skywalk connecting Malad railway station to the south.

On the Central Railway section, the railways had temporarily shut a part of Pant Nagar ROB in Ghatkopar West on Sunday after cracks were noticed in one of its walls. Another “old and redundant” ROB near Tilak Nagar station on the harbour line was demolished by the CR on Sunday.

On July 3, a part of the Gokhale bridge had collapsed on the tracks, affecting train services in the section for an entire day. While the Commissioner of Railway Safety, Western Circle, has ordered an inquiry into the incident, senior railway officials claimed that unauthorised surface construction and wires had increased load on the cantilever bridge, making it weak. Following the incident, the Central and Western Railways conducted inspection of all the road and foot overbridges in the suburban section.

“We are only shutting down the bridges whose condition, prima facie, appears precarious. By shutting them down in time, we want to take the required remedial action… Though it will inconvenience the commuters for some time, it is better to take timely action,” a senior Western Railway official said.

“We are essentially targeting the old and corroded bridges on the railways. Among the road overbridges, we plan to inspect how many have unauthorised surface construction and cables wired into them. In the next one month, we plan to cover inspection of major bridges which are either built on railway stations which see high footfall or vehicular movement,” the official added.

Senior officials added that, with the old bridges also being inspected, a few more bridges might be shut down in the coming days. On July 3, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, who had visited the collapse site, had ordered a joint inspection of 445 bridges by the railways, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai. Goyal had asked officials to submit the report of the inspection within six months. Sources said the Western Railway planned to inspect every bridge on its section within the next three months.

According to sources, a team from IIT-Mumbai, the BMC and railways inspected the Gokhale bridge on Friday to ascertain the cause of the collapse. Railway officials stated that professors from the technology institute had confirmed that the girders of the bridge were not weak.

“We are inspecting the bridges during the day and night… However, continuous downpour over the past two days has made the inspection all the more difficult,” a railway official said.

While the railways is conducting a visual inspection of the bridges — checking for corrosion, defective or broken parts, among other things, 12 inspection teams comprising officials from IIT, railways and the BMC are yet to be formed. Subhash Gupta, an activist, said, “It is better late than never. As always, the railways learnt lessons from an accident… As they identify old bridges, the railways and BMC must work in co-ordination to repair them.”