Insufficient bids, design flaws ‘slow down’ over twenty Mumbai foot overbridges construction

Subodh Jain, former member engineering, Railway Board, said: “Procedural delays are slowing down the construction of projects in the city. As foot overbridges are now a safety item, simplification of procedures should be looked into.”

After 23 died in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, passengers amenities, including bridges were considered as a ‘safety item’. Deepak Joshi

IN WHAT appears to have ‘slowed down’ the pace of construction of foot overbridges (FOBs) in the city, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) had to re-invite the bids for more than 20 FOBs to be built in and around railway stations. The inability to attract enough bidders in the first round has allegedly led the corporation float the bids again.

After the stampede on the Elphinstone Road station FOB in September last year, Central (CR) and Western Railway (WR), along with MRVC, were tasked with constructing FOBs. The MRVC is itself undertaking the construction of close to 78 bridges in the city. “In the first set, we were constructing FOBs at locations identified between two railway stations where trespassing occurs frequently. While we had floated tenders for them last year, we hardly received bids for them. As they found the bids to be of high value, we had to recall the tender,” a senior MRVC official said.

Officials said that hardly 20 contractors in the city bid for construction of railway projects in Mumbai. “Lesser participation from bidders allows two or three big players to dominate the bidding process. This in turn reduces fair competition and allows them to quote a high price. As we get a sanctioned amount from Railways for this, we cannot go beyond our stipulated funds,” an official said. These bridges are proposed to come up between Bandra and Khar railway stations on the WR. On the CR, they are planned between Diva and Datiwali stations, Kurla and Vidyavihar, north end of Ghatkopar and Nahur stations.

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Adding to the troubles, the designs of 15 FOBs — being constructed by MRVC — were sent back by the Railway Board due to errors. “As per the revised rule, the schedule of dimension (distance between the track and the bridge) must be 6.25 metres on the home platform. In at least 15 of these bridges, it was erroneously written as 5.75, which is lesser than required. This would be corrected soon,” the official said.
Tenders of these 15 bridges were floated in January. Senior MRVC officials said there is a procedural delay and will be cleared soon. “We plan to suspend the work on the bridges from June 1, as monsoon is likely to hit the city. Till that time, work on tendering and design plans will be on,” said R S Khurana, MD of MRVC.

After 23 died in the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, passengers amenities, including bridges were considered as a ‘safety item’. Railways Minister Piyush Goyal had then promised that Mumbai suburban would get 100 FOBs by next year. He had then directed that all foot overbridges, platforms and pathways at stations would be treated with “the highest priority”.

Subodh Jain, former member engineering, Railway Board, said: “Procedural delays are slowing down the construction of projects in the city. As foot overbridges are now a safety item, simplification of procedures should be looked into.”

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