One girder is planned to be installed before the monsoon starts and one in August
Assembling work for the first girder of Delisle Road bridge took place in December, last year. File pic
Even as Delisle Road bridge, one of the most crucial and awaited bridges in the city, has missed the May deadline, Western Railway has assured that work will begin this month. One girder is planned to be installed this month before the onset of monsoon.
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“It is a massive girder and will be pushed with much precision and planning over the rail lines. It also involves stopping of rail traffic and a major block will be required for the work. The block is now planned in early June. The idea is to finish with one girder before the monsoon sets in and the other one around August 2022,” a senior official said.
Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, Western Railway, said the work has been planned for June 11. Once both girders are placed over the rail lines, the approaches will be built by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. There are a total of three approaches, two on the west side where work of dismantling and rebuilding can start immediately and one on the east side whose work will be post monsoon.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray had, in April, blamed Indian Railways for the delay of the crucial bridge. “I had earlier written to the Union railway minister seeking his intervention. The inexplicable delay of the girder launching and work completion by railways has delayed the bridge by a year. Only post the work of the railways, can the BMC initiate ramp works,” he said. A railway official said the work will begin this month. “Built as a massive steel web structure, the girders were made at Kota in Rajasthan, transported here and then assembled. The big web girder has been designed specially as per the angles of the old bridge’s alignment because the bridge needs to be placed at a 65 degree curve. A total of 360 metric tonnes of stainless steel along with 3,700 cubic metres of concrete (M-40 grade) has been used,” he added.
The dismantling of the spans over railway tracks was completed in February 2019, in a record timeframe of five months. This was followed by dismantling of abutments in June 2019, after removal of encroachments. WR then awarded the contract for rebuilding the railway portion at a cost of R87 crore and work of laying foundations was taken up after the monsoon in November 2019. The foundation work on the east side was completed in May 2020 and completion of the raft foundation on the west side in June 2020 and the east side by January 2021.
The bridge timelines were delayed due to the pandemic. The two key reasons for delay have been unavailability of industrial oxygen since it was diverted for medical use and also absence of skilled labour due to the lockdown in various states. Delisle Road Bridge has been an important connectivity link road between east and west, catering to crowds from a large number of industrial, commercial and corporate offices for travelling between Lower Parel, Currey Road, Worli Naka in the west and Lalbaug and Byculla in the east.
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