The Central Railway (CR) will be soon dismantling five foot overbridges (FOB) in its suburban section. The five FOBs were selected on the basis of the recommendation of a team of railway engineers and experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who conducted a joint inspection of the FOBs.
The five bridges that will be dismantled are located at Bhandup, Kurla, Vikhroli, Diva and Kalyan stations.
According to Sunil Udasi, Chief Public Relations Officer, CR, these bridges were built during the era of the Great Indian Peninsula Railways, which was the predecessor of CR. He said the decision to dismantle the FOBs was taken after several joint inspections were conducted in the aftermath of the Andheri bridge collapse, which claimed two lives, in July last year. A total of 178 FOBs and 81 rail overbridges (ROBs) on CR were inspected. The Patripool ROB at Kalyan was shut down immediately and was dismantled after the team declared it unsafe.
“The dismantling of the bridges had been planned well in advance. We will be taking up one bridge every week. At all stations, alternate FOBs have already been built for commuters to use,” he said. A senior railway official said the bridges were not structurally unsound, but maintaining them was getting harder with each passing year.
