Aaditya Thackeray blames Railways for delay in Delisle Bridge reconstruction

Thackeray on Sunday alleged that the work of the girder launching by Railways has been delayed for over a year, with no explanation.

Mumbai: After the tussle over the bullet train terminal at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Metro-3 car depot at Aarey Colony, the Centre and state have locked horns once again. Cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday blamed the Indian Railways for the delay in the reconstruction of Delisle Bridge in Lower Parel which is shut since 2018. Western Railway (WR) has, however, rubbished claims of a deliberate attempt to delay works.

Western Railway and the BMC are jointly reconstructing the bridge that was shut owing to structural damages. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Western Railway and the BMC are jointly reconstructing the bridge that was shut owing to structural damages.

Thackeray on Sunday alleged that the work of the girder launching by Railways has been delayed for over a year, with no explanation.

“I had earlier written to Union Minister, Railways for his intervention. The inexplicable delay of the girder launching and work completion by railways has delayed the bridge by a year. Only post the work of the railways, can the BMC initiate ramp works. While one side of the Delisle Road bridge can be completed by @mybmc, it is awaiting an NOC from @RailMinIndia so that at least there’s some relief to traffic on one end of the bridge where the work has been completed by the BMC,” Thackeray tweeted.

Thackeray spoke on the sidelines of review work for the Delisle bridge, which is a major link connecting Lower Parel, Worli and Prabhadevi to the west and Currey Road, Lalbaug and Byculla to the east.

When contacted, Sumit Thakur, Public Relations Officer of Western Railway said, “We are working towards the launching of girder and we will hand over everything to the BMC by August 2022. The work is on in full swing and is being closely monitored.”

“There was no deliberate delay but we have faced several hurdles due to Covid-19 last year with oxygen at the construction site, availability of labour etc. Due to these factors, the work has been affected but there is no deliberate attempt to slow down the work,” Thakur added.

Delisle Bridge was shut in 2018 after IIT-Bombay, which studied the structure in the wake of the Gokhale bridge collapse, said it was corroded. Since then, the traffic has been diverted and the bridges at Parel, Dadar TT and Mahalaxmi Railway station witness a spillover.

Since 2019, the demolition and reconstruction work is underway wherein the Railways is supposed to construct the bridge above the railway tracks and BMC is supposed to construct the three approaches to the bridge for which it appointed contractors in 2019. The work on the bridge was initially expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, Thackeray on Sunday also reviewed the works of underground water tanks that are being constructed at Hindmata to ensure there is no water logging at Parel, Dadar and several parts of Central Mumbai.

In a statement, the BMC quoted Thackeray saying, “The underground water tank will be able to store 2 crore 87 lakh litres of water. Therefore, the Hindmata area will get a lot of relief from the problem of rainwater harvesting. A similar underground water storage tank is being constructed at Pramod Mahajan Udyan.”

The statement further states, “The solution to the problem of rainwater harvesting in the Hindmata area will be historic. Similar measures will be taken by studying the Milan subway and other low-lying areas. Shri. Thackeray mentioned on this occasion.”