Western Railway (WR) carried out the de-launching (dismantling) of steel girders of Gokhale road over-bridge (ROB) between Vile Parle and Andheri stations from Saturday, 11 March 2023 night till early Sunday, 12 March 2023 morning. While 12 girders were de-launched overnight, four final girders were de-launched by late Sunday night with a four-hour rail block.
This was the last leg of railway work to dismantle the bridge. After some ancillary work, WR authorities will hand over the west side of the bridge to the BMC by March 15. “The east side will be handed over by March 31. The civic body will take over work of rebuilding the ROB,” said WR chief spokesperson Sumit Thakur.
A key east-west connector in Andheri, Gokhale bridge has been shut for pedestrian and vehicular traffic since November 2022, after being declared unsafe. On the BMC’s request, experts from technical institutes inspected the bridge and suggested reopening a single lane after carrying out several repair works. The civic body, however, decided to reopen the bridge only after its reconstruction. Work is expected to be completed by September 2023, sources said.
In connection with the de-launching, a major rail block was taken on the 5th line and platform 9 line from 9.30pm on Saturday to 5.30am on Sunday and from 12.10 am to 4.40 am on platform 4 line overnight. Some of the suburban and long-distance trains were affected due to the blocks and passengers were inconvenienced.
Sources said that during the night block, on the west side of the ROB, six panels of mid pier were cut and removed with the help of three road cranes of 700MT, 240MT and 110MT capacity. “From Span 1 of the ROB, six girders were de-launched overnight while six other girders were removed from Span 2. A total 12 out of 16 girders were removed,” an official said, adding that the balance of four steel girders (2 each from spans1 and 2) was to be finished in a few hours.