Nod for steel bridge on delayed first route

Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd,the special purpose vehicle created for the execution of the corridor,has been awaiting clearance for the portion from the railways for around 15 months now. There were several rounds of designing with the blueprint going back and forth between the two agencies before the final design was changed from a concrete bridge to a steel bridge. “The Commissioner for Railway Safety on Tuesday granted the permission for the design approved for the bridge. So now the work of the sub-structure can start on the railway premises,” said Western Railway chief PRO Sharat Chandrayan.

According to sources,the work on the railway portion will commence in a week.

The steel bridge will be one of the most challenging structures along the entire corridor and it is expected that it will take nearly eight months to build. The construction on the railway portion is yet to start,but the piling work for the steel bridge on the Ghatkopar-end of the corridor has started,sources said.

Sources in MMRDA and MMOPL feel that the period of construction allowed by the Railways is too little and it will delay the completion of the bridge.

The Railways have made available 142 traffic and power blocks ranging from a minimum of 1 hour 55 minutes to a maximum of four hours. According to the estimates of MMOPL,with the given time period,the bridge construction would take around eight months.