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ShareMumbai: Railway officials claim that the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is responsible for the mishap that killed two persons on board the Kalyan train on Friday morning. "Despite repeated communication to execute and expedite the work of the road over-bridge at Kopri near Thane railway station, TMC always delayed it," said SC Mudgerikar, chief public relations officer of CR.
He added, "On several occasions we had brought to their notice that various girders had developing cracks, but no action was taken."
The letter dated August 7, 2009 from an officer on special duty (OSD) of the CR to the TMC commissioner has pointed out various flaws in the execution of the work.
The contract awarded in 2002 had received sanction for the plans from the railways in 1998. "The work is not done on regular basis and intermittent activity is taking place after a long duration. TMC is not informing us about the work on a regular basis," the letter stated.
Furthermore, CR had already given 56 railway and traffic blocks for the work since April 8 2006.
"Their second girder had cracked while working on the night of September 12 - 13, 2006, first girder also developed cracks. Followed by this the strands of the fourth girder had got stressed on March27- 28, 2009 which as per the modified drawings had to be replaced with fresh strands. This, we had communicated, on April 21, 2009. However, it has been observed that strands have yet not been procured and brought at site," the letter clarifies.
Mudgerikar said that railways had never refused to offer support for executing the work. "Railways was ready to block the corridor and had also offered to engage cranes to execute the work with a minimum timeframe," he said.
