After Andheri bridge collapse, Matunga foot over-bridge starts developing cracks

Mumbai: A foot over-bridge (FOB) connected to the Matunga railway station on the Central Railway has been shut for public after cracks were found in it, civic officials said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to close this FOB for people last week.

"The Matunga (west) FOB connected to the railway station was shut for public use last week after cracks were found on it. BMC's bridge department will soon come out with an inspection report in this regard," a ward official said. Any decision regarding its repair or re-opening will be taken as per the report, he added.

On July 3, a portion of Gokhale road over-bridge (ROB) had collapsed over the railway tracks at Andheri station, which left five people injured, including a 36-year-old woman who died few days later. The incident had paralysed the Western Railway's (WR) local train services on that day and also hit the operations of some long-distance trains.

On July 15, the WR had stopped the suburban train operations after a citizen alerted it about a "huge leakage" in Khar subway. After the call, the WR engineers had carried out an inspection of the leakage site. An official of the bridges department of the BMC said a structural audit of all the 274 bridges across the city was underway and an action plan for their repairs, maintenance and reconstruction would be prepared soon.

"Our department has been carrying out the structural audit of 274 bridges since the last year. The work is in the final stages," BMC chief engineer (bridges) Shitlaprasad Kori told PTI.

"Hopefully, we will soon prepare a list of bridges under various categories- those in good condition, requiring minor repairs, major repairs or requiring reconstruction," the official said. Of these 274 bridges spread across the city, 137 are located in the western suburbs, 60 in the eastern suburbs while 77 are in the main city.