Mumbai: British-era Carnac Bridge dismantled before time, says Central Railway

Central Railways carried out a 27-hour block to successfully dismantle the dilapidated Carnac Bridge, between the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Byculla/Wadala stationS yesterday.

The 150-year-old bridge was located between the CSMT and Masjid Bunder on the suburban line in Mumbai.

Central Railway dismantled the dilapidated bridge during the 27-hour block that was planned from 11 pm (IST) on 19 November to 2 am (IST) on 21 November.

General manager, Central Railway, Anil Kumar Lahoti said extensive preparatory work, innovative scheme, meticulous planning, and coordination with local civic bodies helped in completing the enormous task ahead of schedule.

“It was a huge and challenging task as traffic on all lines and CSMT station was completely shut. Deployment of multiple large-capacity cranes and other machinery with extensive manpower and teamwork facilitated expeditious completion of the work. This mega traffic block was also utilised to carry out other maintenance work on the track,” he said.

Lahoti further said that helpdesks were provided to ensure that the passengers do not face inconvenience.

The block on all suburban and mainline tracks as well as the ones in the yard between CSMT and Byculla and CSMT and Wadala was in place from 11 pm on Saturday to 2 am on Monday. “However, the first train departed from CSMT for Thane at 3:50 pm on Sunday, passing the Carnac Bridge dismantling site at 4 pm. Harbour line was restored by 7 pm,” an official said.

On Thursday, the Central Railway announced a 27-hour ‘block’ from the night of 19 November for dismantling the Carnac Bridge in Mumbai.

During the block period, suburban trains were operated from Byculla, Parel, Dadar, and Kurla stations towards Thane, Kalyan, Kasara , Karjat side, and vice versa, whereas on the Harbour line the services ran between Vadala and Panvel-Goregaon stations.

The CR had requested the civic transport bodies to run extra buses for the convenience of commuters during the block period.

The bridge was built in 1866-67 and was declared unsafe by an expert team of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) in 2018, though the movement of heavy vehicles on it was stopped in 2014 itself.