Milan subway work on, to open in Jan

The long-pending work to join the two ends of the incomplete Milan rail overbridge (RoB) was started on Saturday night after the Western Railways (WR) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) concluded negotiations concerning operational blocks for local trains and launching scheme for erecting one of the largest spans without pillars over railway tracks in the city.

“We successfully moved a major section of the span on Saturday night after resolving pending issues. Work on this section will take around 10-12 days and then, after a breather, another month to complete the other section of the span. By mid-January, the entire span should have been built and after some finishing work spanning a few more days, opened for traffic,” explained Ashwini Bhide, joint metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA.

A four-lane rail overbridge spanning nearly 60 metres is to be constructed over seven railway tracks for facilitating movement between the western and eastern parts of Santacruz. More than 1,200 trains run on this stretch every day, making it one of the busiest suburban train corridors in the city.
The long-pending project has already failed to meet five deadlines over the last two years due to the inability of the two agencies to finalise details about the manner in which the small but sensitive portion of the bridge passing over seven railway tracks placed closely was to be constructed.
d_akshay@dnaindia.net