Temporary FOB in place of Hancock bridge: Encroachments pose challenge, say railway officials

The Hancock Road overbridge was demolished in January 2016 after a railways audit ascertained it to be dangerous to use. In May 2016, the Brihanmumbai Munici-pal Corporation (BMC) awarded contracts for four bridges — including Hancock — to two parties, which were under investigation in a road scam. An activist had filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court challenging the awarding of the contracts, saying both contractors were tainted.

In July, the High Court cancelled the contracts, prompting the BMC to invite fresh tenders. However, the matter was further delayed when one of the earlier contractors, J Kumar Infra, approached the Supreme Court in this regard.

Last week, the apex court cleared the path for the BMC to award the contracts. It had further directed the railways to come up with a temporary solution until the Hancock overbridge was rebuilt.

The revised tender floated by the BMC on Friday for building the new Hancock overbridge will be open for ten days. Officials fear that this would mean the construction of both the permanent and temporary foot overbridges (separated by a gap of hardly 20 meters) would take place at the same time, which would mean the construction would take even more time.

In a separate audit done by the BMC in October 2016 to look into the possibility of a temporary bridge, it had observed, “Launching of girder for pedestrian bridge due to space constraints and hazardous location due to high tension lines are the major challenge to complete the work. Considering the space constraints and various safety aspects due to the running railway track, the cost of construction will be exorbitantly high.” The audit further claimed the “time period required for planning, designing, approval, tendering and execution will be over 15 to 18 months… The requirement of immediate construction of temporary structure seems to be practically not feasible.”
“We will take a minimum of six months to one year in building the temporary foot overbridge without any further legal hassles. Though temporary, it will need to undergo tendering and regular process — that is essential to make a sturdy bridge. The same time could be taken by the BMC to make their bridge,” a senior railways official said.

“Until the proposal is put forward by the railways to the court, no official comment can be given. We will provide the required assistance to the railways in clearing encroachments or paying for its finances as they cite in the proposal, ” S Kori, chief engineer (bridges), BMC, said.