One person was injured after some portion of a skywalk at Charni Road station collapsed at 8:48 pm on Saturday evening. The structure was under phase-wise reconstruction by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation when the incident occurred with its north-side having been demolished by the civic body. It had been declared as a ‘dilapidated’ structure in May.
The injured, Dungarao Singh, 67, was taken to Saifee Hospital for minor injuries on his arm and was declared out of danger.
This comes only days after 23 people died in a stampede on the foot-over-bridge connecting Elphinstone and Parel stations.
The skywalk runs parallel to the platform at Charni Road station and is used by lakhs daily to cross over from Marine Drive towards Saifee Hospital. It has been in a dilapidated condition for years now.
The bridge department of the BMC took over repair work of the skywalk at the behest of local corporators and commuters who pointed out the safety risk the skywalk posed, especially when it shook every time a train passed by. The north-side of the bridge was demolished, but work came to an abrupt halt last week when high tension wires of the Railways were discovered as passing under the footpath.
The bridge, while under reconstruction, was open to pedestrians so as to not affect commuter and pedestrian traffic. After the incident, it was promptly closed by the BMC.
Delays Galore
There were other reasons also for delay in the reconstruction of the skywalk. The traffic police took over six months to give permission as it was a VIP road and construction work would create hurdles, and when it finally agreed, it asked the BMC to do the work in phases.
The Railways also objected to the potential disruption due to the work, and insisted on a phase-wise reconstruction. The BMC obliged and divided the work in three phases. They had just began the first phase by demolishing a part of the skywalk.
At the beginning of phase 2, when the high-tension wires were discovered, the Railways asked the BMC to pay up for the cable-shifting work, but dropped the demand after the civic body pointed out that the footpath came under their jurisdiction. The Railways agreed to do the work, but asked the civic body to not charge them for digging up the footpath. The BMC agreed, but was yet to pass this as a written order, due to which work had temporarily halted at the skywalk.
Quick to clarify that the project was under the BMC, and they had offered all cooperation, the Railways came up on the defensive, washing all hands off the mishap.
The agency involved in this case here is the BMC and they should do their part. We have cooperated with them in all ways.Ravinder Bhaker, Chief Public Relations Officer, Western Railway.
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