Constructing one bridge takes two years: Rly officials

Mumbai: According to railway officials, it takes at least two years on an average to build a foot overbridge (FOB). The reason for the same is said to be the lack of availability of uninterrupted working time as the trains always keep running and that the officials have very little space to manoeuvre while constructing the foot overbridge The railways have to make sure that they don’t cause any damage to the tracks, overhead wires or the posts that fix these wires in place, while drilling into the ground for laying the foundation piers.

Building the Elphinstone FOB will prove difficult due to space crunch — the structure is in close proximity to the platform and tracks —  and the fact that Central Railway (CR) is also constructing the Parel Terminus simultaneously.

A railway official said, “The end of the platform at Parel that connects to the foot overbridge is extremely narrow will have to be widened. When the Central Railway will be working on widening that part, we will have to make sure that during the process of digging and fixing the foundation of the bridge, we do not damage the bed of soil on which the tracks are laid.”

For constructing the bridge, the railways will have to bring parts of the foot overbridge together and align them together piece by piece.

During this process, trains cannot be allowed to run on the section where work is going on and finding the time when trains can be halted without causing trouble to commuters is a tough job.

The Western Railway will be rebuilding the Elphinstone Road Bridge, which was opened for the public in 1972.