Will Mumbai's British era bridges be cable stayed? This is what the rail authorities are working on. The Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (MRIDC) - also called Maha Rail recently formed joint venture between Maharashtra government and Indian Railways - is looking at cable stayed bridges across many parts of the city, depending on its feasibility. This will be similar to the Bandra Worli Sea Link.

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There are in all 17 road over bridges (ROBs) in Mumbai that Maha Rail has been asked to reconstruct on both Central and Western Railways. These include 15 ROBs for which BMC has approached them while for 2 ROBs (at Elphinstone Road and Sewri) they have signed a MoU with MMRDA.

Some of the ROBs include ones at Byculla, Frere bridge (Grant Road), Ollivant bridge (Mazgaon), Mahalaxmi, Bellasis Raod (Mumbai Central), Currey Road, Tilak bridge, Reay Road etc. Sources said that they shall empanel structural and architectural design consultants for rebuilding old ROBs in Mumbai suburban area; for which tenders have been called.

"We are looking at consultants who specialize in designing of cable stayed bridges. These will come up only depending on whether or not its feasible. We know that demolishing existing ROB will cause lot of inconvenience to Mumbaikars and so our primary aim is to construct a new ROB at the same location above the existing one; then demolish it once the new ROB is ready for use," said an official from MRIDC.

Already, people are facing lot of trouble ever since the Delisle bridge in Lower Parel was fully demolished earlier this year. This has caused lot of traffic trouble for motorists who have to take detour. If similar demolitions have taken place' on other such ROBs then it will surely impact movement of Mumbaikars.

The idea has cropped up as cable stayed ones supposedly gives more tensile strength and also look aesthetically better. All these ROBs are vital for Mumbai and most of them are over 100 years. Few of them, according to both Central and Western Railways and IIT Bombay, have become weak and needs to be demolished to prevent untoward incident.