Mumbai: Motorists will have to wait for at least three months before Gokhale Road Overbridge (ROB) in Andheri is fully opened to traffic. Western Railway (WR) will be building a new pedestrian section to replace the one that collapsed on July 3. One person, iudentified as Asmita Katekar, ahd been killed, while four were injured in the incident.
The southern half of the bridge has been closed to traffic since the collapse, while two-way traffic has been allowed on the northern half, leading to bottlenecks at both ends.
The bridge is important to the western suburbs, as it connects the arterial S.V. Road with the Western Express Highway. It also connects Andheri (East) with Andheri (West).
WR has floated tenders for the new pedestrian pathway and officials said that it will take around three to four months. “Unless we build the pedestrian section, we cannot open the bridge to traffic, ass it will have no boundary wall,” a senior WR official said.
According to officials, the new pedestrian section will not have cantilever brackets like the old one. Instead, it will be supported by the main girders of the bridge, with only a small portion extending from the side. Once the new pedestrian pathway is built, the WR will demolish the older one and build a similar pathway.
Officials said no utility cables will be allowed to be laid under the new pedestrian section. The Commissioner of Railway Safety, in his preliminary inquiry report, said the pedestrian pathway collapsed due to corrosion and the additional burden of multiple cables, sand and paver blocks, for which permission from the railway had not been taken.
Sources said that the railways also plan to demolish other pedestrian sections that are on cantilever brackets, which have been declared unsafe. In the aftermath of the bridge collapse, WR has closed the pedestrian section of the Kalanagar ROB and the Vasai ROB were declared unsafe. While WR has taken up the task of constructing the pathway on the works related to the Vasai ROB, sources said they have asked the Public Works Department to take on the Kalanagar one. and build a new pedestrian pathway.