Pedestrians can use part of Delisle bridge from today

MUMBAI: In a relief for railway passengers who need to access Lower

Parel

station, Western Railway has agreed to the BMC’s request to open a portion of Delisle bridge for pedestrians from Friday.


The decision was taken following a joint inspection of the nearly century-old bridge by the railways, BMC and traffic police on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, TOI had quoted a former Western Railway engineer as saying the pedestrian portion of the bridge was safe to use.

Built in 1921, Delisle bridge had been closed to both traffic and pedestrians since July 24 following a joint safety audit by the BMC and IIT-B undertaken in the aftermath of the

Andheri

bridge collapse on July 3.

BMC officials said it was decided to open up a 100m pathway from Currey Road station junction up to Lower Parel station booking office.

We are setting up barricades and creating a pathway so that pedestrians can access the bridge from Friday morning,” confirmed Sanjay Mishra, WR divisional railway manager. Bollards will be put up so that vehicles don’t use the pathway.

According to sources, WR has reluctantly given in to the demand of the elected representatives and BMC—the present arrangement of bifurcating the pedestrian flow via two foot over-bridges (FOBs) was ‘working fine’, said an official. “Once access is allowed via the ramp on Delisle bridge up to the north FOB of Lower Parel, no one will use the south FOB, whose entry/exit opens on Datta Ahire Marg. The opening of the bridge for pedestrians may lead to crowding on the north FOB,” said a railway official.

The bridge inspection witnessed high drama as Shiv Sena, MNS and NCP workers argued with each other. MNS worker Santosh Dhuri said, “We were not informed about the inspection. When we told the BMC officials to speak louder while briefing the Sena MLA so that everyone knew what was being done, the MLA thought we were pointing fingers at him.” NCP workers argued that the ‘abrupt shutting’ of the bridge was inconveniencing the public. Sena MLA Sunil Shinde said, “While carrying out the inspection there was some misunderstanding and miscommunication, which is why this outburst took place.”

On Thursday, pedestrian movement below the bridge was managed in a much better manner than on Tuesday. Cops posted at the site directed people to the south FOB so that the north FOB doesn’t get crowded. Banker

Arvind Sharma

, who uses the Lower Parel FOB to reach his office nearby, said, “On Tuesday, people were uninformed, so we were all using only the north FOB. Now, we know we can also use the south FOB, so there was no crowding or chaos.”

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