As a precaution measure taken after Thursday’s Foot Over Bridge (FOB) that claimed six persons and left 30 others injured, the Western Railway has decided to close down the Dadar south FOB constructed by the Brihanmuncipal Municipal Corporation (BMC) for 13 days beginning from Sunday to facilitate its repairs and strengthening.
A day after its senior officials inspected the Dadar south FOB, the Western Railway announced that it would close down the Dadar south FOB constructed by the BMC between March 17 and March 29, 2019.
After the FOB inspection, the Western Railway said that the Ramp at Platform number one and Staircase at platforms 2 and 3 and would be closed temporarily for safety of passengers.
“The Staircase will be closed for 13 days for repairing/strengthening of the same from 17th March to 29th March 2019. Likewise, the Ramp of Platform one will be closed for 90 days for rebuilding from March 1 to 16th June 16, 2019,” a Western Railway press release said.
“During this period the passengers may use railway south FOB. The main FOB will be available to commuters for crossing over from east to west and vice versa,” the release added.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court has agreed to hear all PILs relating to the condition of the condition of foot over-bridges in Mumbai on March 22.
A day after the Himalaya bridge near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus collapsed, Pradeep Bhalekar, a resident of Dadar in north-central moved a HC bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangare and sought an urgent hearing of a PIL he had filed in the wake September 29, 2017.
Bhalekar had urged the court to order the Maharashtra government, BMC and the Railways to conduct an audit of all bridges in Mumbai.
Another activist Kamlakar Shenoy was mentioned before a division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Nitin Jamdar.
Alluding to Thursday’s mishap, Shenoy said that the latest FOB collapse was the second major bridge collapse. Earlier, a portion of Gokhale bridge in Andheri collapsed on July 3, 2018. “My concern is for millions of Mumbaikars using such FOBs. The citizens of Mukmbai pay adequate taxes from time to time,” Shenoy stated in his plea.
Thursday’s was the third FOB mishap during the last one and a half years.
A major portion of the FOB --- also known in knowledgeable circles as Kasab bridge as it was this bridge that Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab had taken after indulging in mayhem to head towards Madam Cama Hospital for second round of strike on the night of November 26, 2008—had comecrashing down at 7.35 pm, when nearly 50-odd commuters were rushing inside the suburban railway terminus from across the road to take local trains back home.
Thursday’s FOB crash had revived the unpleasant memories of first of its kind human tragedy witnessed in the metropolis on September 29, 2017. In that mishap, as many as 23 commuters had been killed and at least 39 others injured in a massive stampede that took place on a narrow foot-over-bridge (FoB) connecting the Parel and Elphinstone Railway stations in south-central Mumbai.