Mumbai: Sandhurst Road building demolition gets new 8pm deadline

The demolition of the building on the fringes of Sandhurst road failed to keep its 7am as well as 3pm deadlines on Sunday as the old British-era steel girder structure of the building and the constant rain made it tough for workers to bring down the structure.

Speaking to DNA in the evening, Mukesh Nigam, divisional railway manager, Central Railway, said that the team has been given a new deadline of 8pm on Sunday. "It is imperative that the BMC team finishes the work by 8pm. We realise that it is a very tough job," said Nigam.

Officials supervising the work said that the lack of maps of the building and the cramped space around it was also hampering work. The building declared dangerous by the BMC several years ago came into focus after the retaining wall around it collapsed onto track number one at Sandhurst road on two consecutive days. Alarmed Central Railway top-brass then sounded a warning to BMC to demolish the building by Sunday or face withdrawal of services between CST and Byculla.

Officials said that since Sunday has its fair share of megablocks and the fact that the Sunday timetable of the Central Railway has a normal curtailment of 400 services, it was the best day to go in for the demolition. "The number of services cancelled for this work gets balanced out and anyway since morning we are seeing less occupancy in the trains," said a CR official.