Central Railway to remove heavy wires at 14 locations to ease burden on bridges in Mumbai

The Central Railway (CR) has identified 14 locations on its suburban railway network where attachments of overhead equipment placed under road overbridges (RoB) have to be removed.

Attachments, which act as additional support to overhead wires which provide power supply to run trains, have been taken off Carnac Bunder Bridge, between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Masjid Bunder station, and Byculla RoB. A separate support system for the overhead wires on the sides of the RoBs has been made.

The attachments will also be removed from RoBs at Chinchpokli, Currey Road, Parel, Sion RoB and Ghatkopar. “The load of the overhead equipment is not very significant, but we are still removing the attachments as a precautionary measure,” said Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer, CR.

The weight of these overhead wires can go up to 1,000kg. The move is part of the audit of 445 bridge structures undertaken on central and western railway (WR) after the pedestrian portion of Gokhale bridge collapsed onto the tracks at Andheri station on July 3.

The audit has been called by Union railway minister Piyush Goyal.

HT had reported on August 2 that during an inspection by the auditing committee comprising of IIT Bombay experts, officials from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and CR officers, it was pointed out that the weight on bridges have increased substantially because of the attachments.

The auditing teams had earlier asked utility cables be removed from the RoBs at Ghatkopar and Kalanagar (Bandra East). CR shut the pedestrian pathway of Ghatkopar RoB after it was found it is loaded with cables with a thickness of 400mm. Similarly, the auditing team had also suggested a complete shutdown of vehicular traffic on Delisle Bridge at Lower Parel, and Patri Pool RoB at Kalyan.

Corrosion in Byculla RoB has also been noticed, which could lead to shutting the bridge for heavy vehicles. The team also found structural issues with the pedestrian end of the Currey Road RoB leading to the railway station.

First Published: Aug 16, 2018 00:18 IST