Mumbai: Central Railway may preserve stone plaques of 150-yr-old Carnac Bridge at Masjid

Carnac Bridge has markings in Hindi, Gujarati and English with the letters 1868 and its names carved on the plaques

With the demolition of the Carnac Bridge finalised later this month, the Central Railway has said that they would try and preserve the original stone plaques on the overpass, possibly at the indoor or outdoor heritage galleries at CSMT or may even try to embed them into the new bridge design.

mid-day had earlier reported that the over 150-year-old bridge had been declared dangerous by IIT-Bombay in their audit. It was recommended that the bridge be pulled down as it had become a danger for the busy rail traffic passing below. The traffic police had put restrictions on heavy vehicular movement on the bridge. The BMC and traffic police have now given the go-ahead for shutting and cutting up the bridge to be replaced by a new one.

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The bridge has markings in Hindi, Gujarati and English with the letters 1868 and the name of the bridge carved on plaques on all four sides. The bridge was built about 30 years after a road came up at the location and was constructed by ‘Bhau', Indian entrepreneur Laxman Harishchandra Ajinkya, in the 1840s while he was constructing one of the first wharf and basins of Bombay along the eastern shore. The Bhaucha Dhakka wharf off Mazgaon is named after him.

"The Central Railway has appraised the joint commissioner of police [traffic] Mumbai about the deterioration and unsafe condition of Carnac Bridge and the urgency to dismantle it. The traffic department is of the opinion that considering the traffic repercussions, the permission for closure of Carnac Bridge should be given after the opening of Hancock Bridge by the BMC. It is now learnt that the BMC has requested the traffic department to go ahead and grant a ‘No Objection Certificate' from mid-July 2022. Hence, it is expected to start the dismantling by mid-July and parallel to this, the Hancock Bridge will be opened for road traffic. The initial removal process may not affect rail traffic, but subsequently, during the final removal, major blocks would be taken to dismantle the bridge," a senior official said.

Central Railway chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar confirmed the development and said that the railways would try and see if the old plaques could be embedded into the new bridge design or brought to the heritage galleries.