In the wake of a tanker getting blocked under a road overbridge and putting the traffic in King's Circle area in a state of disarray on Tuesday, DNA did an audit of a few British era bridges in the city and tried to find out their current state of disrepair and operability.
The island city, more popularly called South Bombay (SoBo), has many bridges dating back to the British era. Some of them include Carnac Bridge at Masjid Bunder, S at Byculla, Kennedy Bridge at Girgaon, Elphinstone Road Bridge, Currey Road Bridge, Tilak Bridge at Dadar, Chincpokli Bridge, railway bridges at Sandhurst Road, Reay Road, and Dockyard Road among others.
DNA visited three of the British era bridges to find their current status.
Carnac Bridge:
It is a road overbridge connecting Mohammad Ali Road to P D'mello Road in Masjid Bunder station. The bridge runs above the central railway tracks between CST and Masjid Bunder Station. The bridge was built 148 years ago and was to be demolished as it has already been declared unsafe. However, a PIL was filed which has delayed the demolition. S Kori, Chief Engineer Bridges, BMC said, "People park their vehicles which is not allowed. But traffic police should restrict them".
Railway Bridge from Reay road station to Dockyard road station:
The Reay Road railway bridge is said to be around 130 years old. The bridge crosses the Barrister Nath Pai Marg in Darukhana area. Darukhana being a transport area has many heavy vehicles passing by. However, due to the bridge's low height, there have been incidents wherein trucks have gotten stuck, similar to King's Circle incident.
Chincpokli Bridge
This bridge passes above the Chickpolki railway tracks. The bridge provides important connectivity from Arthur Road, Jacob Circle to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road. However, the major challenge is that heavy vehicles are allowed, which worsens the life of the 125-year-old bridge everyday. The condition of the bridge is bad and many corporators have have raised questions in the BMC house regarding the bad state of it's repairs. Locals say during the bridge vibrates during heavy traffic.
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