In Mumbai, work on dismantling railway's Gokhale bridge back on track

MUMBAI: Work to dismantle Gokhale bridge, Andheri, which had been stopped by the railways resumed on Saturday. BMC authorities said they have taken immediate cognisance of the letter that was sent to them by the railway authorities to ensure that the speed of the work is not impacted in any way.
Deputy municipal commissioner (Infrastructure) Ulhas Mahale said, "We received the communication from railways and have acted upon it. Works of dismantling began from Saturday. BMC is making effort to ensure that timelines are met for the convenience of citizens..."
The dismantling works of Gokhale Bridge were stopped on February 21 by a former corporator, Abhijit Samant, over a verbal complaint of locals, said Western Railway in a letter to BMC on February 22. The dismantling work was stopped following complaint of noise from the dismantling machinery at the site.
Abhijit Samant, however in a letter on Saturday, clarified that he only stopped breaking of slabs kept on the east side of the bridge which is at least 50mt from the dismantling work site. "We never saw Railway Police Force (RPF) etc agency on this site where breaking of slabs is taken place. Also, the place where they are breaking slabs is not railways premises. it's 50mt away from railway property (east side of Sahar Road). So railway agencys like RPF work on railway premises and this site work which is out of railway premises is self-contradictory," said Samant.
Samant suggested that if they can move the RCC piece / slabs (after dismantling) 50mt away from the dismantling site with the help of cranes, they can move it where they are going to use the debris of these RCC pieces.
"In a nutshell, for flimsy reasons, some officers of the public sector, like railways, shouldn't trouble residents when alternative modes are very available and make this breaking of slab convenient for all stakeholders including localawhere slab breaking is going on," said Samant.
The WR in its letter sent to BMC last week has said that since the targets given are already very tight, delay of even one day will cause chances of slippage of target and it would be difficult in meeting the deadline of handing over the site to BMC (for reconstruction) in February (West approach) and March (East approach).