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Railway FOBs for Wankhede Stadium entry to be closed for India-SL T20
The FOBs cater to half of North Stand (now Dilip Vengsarkar Stand), Sunil Gavaskar Stand (East Stand) and the Vittal Divecha Stand, and are built above the railway tracks on the northern end of the Churchgate railway station.
The delay in the reconstruction work of the two railway foot over bridges (FOBs), connecting the Wankhede Stadium from the eastern side, will be closed during the India versus Sri Lanka Twenty20 international to be played here on Tuesday evening.
The FOBs cater to half of North Stand (now Dilip Vengsarkar Stand), Sunil Gavaskar Stand (East Stand) and the Vittal Divecha Stand, and are built above the railway tracks on the northern end of the Churchgate railway station.
When contacted, Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president Amol Kale said: “The bridges won’t be open”. As for the entry of the spectators for the above mentioned stands, he added: “It will be managed from the hockey stadium side and the University ground side.”
The delay is due to the decision over who will bear the cost of the reconstruction: the MCA or the Western Railway. WR had been auditing bridges above its tracks along with experts from the Indian Institute of Technology and they had suggested reconstruction of the two FOBs. WR has always contended that the two bridges are used only by the cricket fans, rather than the general public, for the matches and therefore it should be the MCA’s responsibility to maintain them.
After the audit report in 2019, a few international games have been held at Wankhede and the FOBs used with minor repair. But this time it was thought not to risk it. The stadium also hosted the 2022 IPL matches but there was a restriction on crowd capacity for it.
For a full house, it can be a challenge to manage the crowd’s entry and exit points. For the India-SL game, MCA is not expecting a packed stadium. “First of all it is an India versus Sri Lanka match, and on a working day. It (crowd turnout) will be sizeable, (but) it won’t be a full house,” said Kale. Asked whether any decision has been taken about the reconstruction, Kale said: “We will construct the bridge in due course, either MCA or Railways (will do it).”
