Mumbai: Delay in building 2 bridges may hinder Kalwa and Diva railway lines

The Kalwa crossing gate and the new bridge in the background

The delay in completion of road bridges by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) now promises to be a dampener on the new 5th and 6th lines between Diva and Thane. While the railways are expected to finish work and start trains on the new lines by January 2022, two road crossings across tracks that hamper rail traffic at Kalwa and Diva are proving to be a bane.

The closure of the bigger culprit - one of the most crucial level crossing gates at Kalwa that delays half the trains on Central Railway every day - that was to happen in October, has now been further pushed back by a month due to the TMC's delay in completion of the approaches.

This is the crossing that detains the maximum number of trains on CR's Mumbai suburban railway. The closure of this gate and addition of two lines as part of the Thane-Diva 5th and 6th line project will add capacity to the tracks, allowing more than 100 services once commissioned. While the bridge is expected to be ready by November, the 5th and 6th lines will be opened by January 2022. Actually the bridge is ready, but TMC's last-minute delay in building approaches to it has pushed the deadline.

Work on the 12-year delayed road bridge at Kalwa over the Kharigaon level crossing was initially expected to complete by May 2021 as per the deadline of TMC, but later postponed to October. Now it has been pushed back by a month also due to the pandemic and related limitations of labour and material. The cost of the bridge is Rs 30 crore.

Asked why it took so much time, a senior official said that after approvals in 2008, construction work on the bridge began and the Central Railway completed their portion above tracks in 2017 but the TMC work progressed slowly due to land issues. The east side had no clear land available for approaches and landings. The land was disputed, which led to issues and solving them took much of the time. "Work at Kalwa is now at an advanced stage, and we can safely say that the bridge will be completed by November," Thane Mayor Naresh Mhaske told mid-day.

Diva bridge, a long way off

The bridge at Diva too faced a huge delay due to lack of land on the east side. For the construction of a road over bridge and the closure of the level crossing at Diva, a pond needs to be filled up in the east along with removal of some electric poles/equipment. Once this is done, work on the foundation can begin. The bridge will cost R60 crore. On the west side, piling work is already going on and fabrication of girders is under process and if everything goes well, the railway portion will be complete by next year.

Rs 30cr
Cost of the Kalwa bridge

Rs 60cr
Cost of the Diva bridge