Placing girder on a key bridge gets delayed, causing massive traffic jams on the Eastern Express Highway in Thane
The railways was expected to finish placing the girder by midnight on Sunday
Hoisting a girder on a bridge on the Thane-Diva line did not go as planned for the railways on Sunday. As the work, expected to complete by midnight, got stretched through Monday, it led to huge traffic jams on the Eastern Express Highway, prompting the Thane police to blame the railways for the inconvenience caused to motorists on the first day of the week.
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The unplanned diversion of vehicles choked the Eastern Express Highway in Thane on Monday
“Road traffic from Kharegaon toll naka, Retibunder road, traffic towards Kalamboli, Mhape passing via Mumbra by-pass and oncoming traffic from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan to Kharegaon has all been diverted via alternative routes,” read an official note.
When mid-day visited the site and roads along the stretch, there was congestion and slow-moving traffic. “The Shilphata road is closed and all the vehicles have been diverted to the Eastern Express Highway since last night. Had it been pre-announced, we would have taken alternate roads. This seems to have happened at the last minute and we are now stuck,” motorist Avdesh Kumar said.
After much effort, while the first set of ‘Up’ line girders were laid on March 7 and the work was completed by 8pm that day, placing the ‘Down’ line girders was taken up on March 21 and a traffic block was granted to the railways.
“The Down line girder was pushed up to 60 metres on Sunday and the remaining 16 metres could not be done due to some technical glitch. We are in touch with the Thane traffic police to work out further modalities to complete the remaining work,” said a spokesperson for the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation.
The girder weighs 350 metric tonnes. The completion of this line will not only lead to an increase in suburban services, it will also completely segregate the outstation trains between Kalyan and Kurla. The fast locals will then get a dedicated path.
Sanctioned in 2008, the line is a part of Mumbai Urban Transport Project-2B. It has earned the moniker ‘jinxed’ due to problems at every stage. There were issues with project-affected people occupying the land, followed by a major error in a tunnel alignment after which the project went back to the drawing board.
The first deadline was December 2015, which got pushed to December 2017, March 2019, June 2020 and 2021. Over the years, the cost has also escalated from Rs 130 crore to Rs 440 crore.
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