Residents say they’re glad project, a crucial crossover point for non-ticket holders, will finally be completed; the beams need to cross over four more lines for the work to be considered completed
The newly placed girders of the east-west foot overbridge at Mulund railway station
The rebuilding of a Mulund east-west bridge, to which locals have been looking forward for more than a year, crossed a milestone early on Friday morning when girders were placed over two lines. The beams need to cross over four more lines for the work to be considered completed. Railway officials told mid-day that the new appoximately 100 metre bridge would now be completed by May 31.
Mulund residents had requested the authorities to expedite the building of a foot over bridge (FOB) across the railway station, which has been closed for over a year now. The structure was the only one that pedestrians could use to cross from the east to the west without having to buy a ticket. mid-day reported on March 29 about how the east-west bridge had been delayed.
Advocate Sagar Devre, a local activist who had first complained about the delay of the bridge completion, said the Railways should have done the work faster, given that the bridge was the sole east-west link for non-ticket holders. “It is good that the bridge work is finally moving ahead, but it should have been done and dusted long ago. It is a single, small foot overbridge after all,” he added.
On Friday, Central Railway (CR) operated a power block from 1.05 am to 4.05 am on the slow line, which led to diversions and even partial cancellation of a few trains. mid-day had revealed how the FOB’s predecessor—a 50-year-old pedestrian bridge—had been damaged by rotting vegetables and fruits left behind by illegal hawkers and the illegal alterations of a public toilet contractor. The bridge was then repaired, upgraded and opened by the CR for about six months in 2023.
Following the article, CR assured this newspaper that a new FOB would be constructed at seven metres away from the existing bridge in the direction of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and only after the commissioning of the new FOB for the public, the old one would be dismantled. However, the old bridge was pulled down, despite this, leaving commuters without an alternative.
CR officials said that the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation had now taken up the overall development of Mulund station and is adding an elevated deck and multiple new FOBs besides the one in question, which led to a change in plans. This project, part of the larger MUTP-3A initiative, includes an elevated deck connected to multiple FOBs that is 145 metres long and 9.25 metres wide.
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