Central Railway’s Mumbai division will install height gauges on both sides of the decade-old Sion Road Over Bridge (ROB) from June 21 at night. Even so, the traffic police are yet to receive any notification regarding the same, they allege.
Friday evening, hours before the alleged installation of height gauges or barricades of 3.60 meters, Matunga traffic division, the local traffic police that guards the Sion ROB jurisdiction had no idea about the event. Speaking to FPJ, a traffic cop said, “We have not received any notice from the railways yet about the installation of height barricades. Now even if they install it at midnight, we need signage to notify the heavy vehicles’ drivers if not, they might collide into it, causing accidents.”
On May 11, a 57-year-old tempo driver, unaware of the height barricade, newly installed at the Bellasis Bridge (also called Mumbai Central Bridge), died after the tempo collided with the iron-made height barricade. Given the speed of the vehicle, it stomped on the barrier which ended up falling on the windshield (front part) of the vehicle where the driver was sitting. The driver, Ramu Yadav, died on the spot. The person sitting next to Yadav, who fortunately survived with minor injuries, told the police that there were no sign boards about height restrictions at the entrance of the Bellasis Bridge.
Traffic police, who are concerned about a similar situation at Sion ROB, said they will be deploying a couple of traffic personnel at the spot to provide messages about the height barricade after its installation.
siThe Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, during a structural audit, declared the Sion ROB to be in a dangerous condition, followed by the decision to demolish and reconstruct the 112-year-old bridge. The railways gave the date January 20 as the day it would be destroyed for six months, followed by an 18-month reconstruction period. Former MP Rahul Shewale protested against the demolition citing reasons like inconvenience to residents as February and March were the time students of class 10 and 12 had their board examinations. The railway officials along with the traffic police said the new date of demolition will be announced soon.
While the demolition took place, railways also planned to create space for the fifth and sixth railway lines between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Kurla –to improve the mail and suburban train services.
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