Mumbai: What crack? That's a design on Thakurli road over bridge!

The images tweeted by MNS leader Rajesh Kadam claiming the over bridge was unsafe

The Thakurli road over bridge, built in 2018, has developed cracks and poses a danger to people - this claim recently made by local Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leaders was fortunately found to be untrue, after the bridge was inspected. Senior engineers from Central Railway and the civic body inspected it and found it perfectly safe. What was claimed to be cracks, were well designed construction joints to absorb the pressure and jerks on the bridge.

MNS leader Rajesh Kadam put up pictures of the bridge on social media claiming it was in a dangerous condition. "I demand a complete structural audit of the bridge as soon as possible and have conveyed so to the commissioner of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation," he said.

The post and images triggered several responses from citizens, saying those responsible for the bridge must be punished and that it must be shut down.

A team of Central Railway engineers then examined the bridge structurally and said there was nothing wrong with it. The senior divisional engineer of the concerned section also replied to Kadam's post saying so.

Central Railway chief public relations officer Shivaji Sutar also said that the bridge had been duly inspected and was completely safe for public use and appealed to people not to spread such updates without proper technical verification.

'Consolidate the bridge'

However, Kadam, who claimed only CR engineers had inspected the bridge, insisted it be strengthened.

"The railways may have done their audit, but I still feel that the bridge needs to be consolidated further. This is the only east-west bridge in the region since the level crossing shut and has very heavy traffic all the time. The bridge is not supposed to be used by heavy vehicles and this happens all the time. All this will prove dangerous for the bridge in the long run," Kadam told mid-day.

Also Read: Central Railway to finally build missing FOB link at Kurla station

'A dangerous trend'

A retired railway engineer said that it had become a dangerous trend to take picture of any structure and label it dangerous, without understanding anything about its stability and constructions.

"These are clickbait and populist measures that many adopt, and it is important to pin down such rumours then and there by authenticated officials," he added.
The bridge was built around 2018 to replace the level crossing gate here that opened more than 38 times a day and delayed over 200 trains each time, stopping the entire Central Railway Mumbai network.

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