Title - Railway seeks another change, more delay likely

The construction of the Milan subway rail overbridge, which has been going on for four years, is likely to be delayed again owing to yet another technical change requested by the Western Railway (WR).

This time, just before the launching of girders over the railway tracks was scheduled to begin, the railway authorities have requested a change in the launching plan.

A change at this stage will require the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to draw a new launching scheme, get it approved by the Western Railway and the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), and the whole process may take several more months.

“We can’t predict when the project may be completed because it all depends on the WR authorities now. The launching plan was fully prepared and approved by the CRS. We had approached the WR to get rail traffic blocks sanctioned in order to begin work when they informed us that they need a change in the launching scheme,” said additional metropolitan commissioner Ashwini Bhide.

After missing several deadlines over the past three years, the MMRDA had hoped to complete the construction of the overbridge by September.

The bridge is likely to bring much relief to commuters who have to cross the Milan subway, a bottleneck and a chronic flooding spot. “We are trying to discuss it with WR but if they insist on the change, it will obviously delay the project,” Bhide said.

The new specification requires the MMRDA to launch girders with a truss in between, which would be a more difficult process as the tracks are very closely located to each other and there are several utilities in between. The bridge passes over the railway tracks between Vile Parle and Santacruz and hence the WR approval for the design, material and launching is crucial.

“We will take a minimum of two months to get all the approvals again and the change will impact the cost by about Rs 1 crore or so,” said an MMRDA engineer working on the project.

The total cost of the project has already swelled to Rs 84 crore from Rs 49 crore in 2009.

The MMRDA had first approached the WR for approvals to build the 700-metre bridge over the railway tracks in 2008 while the railway asked for changes in design on two occasions before approving the drawings in 2010. The first change was in using steel girders instead of concrete ones and the second in altering the spans.

The WR approved the launching scheme in 2011 but sought another change in December. This time, the WR wanted the girders to have a metallised coating instead of a galvanized one, while the MMRDA was prepared for the latter.