Demolition of Hancock Bridge to hit Central Railway services on January 10

Local train commuters on Central Railway's 'main' line this Sunday should brace themselves for a harrowing time with the 136-year-old Hancock Bridge, one of the city's oldest bridges from the British era, set to be demolished on January 10

Local train commuters on Central Railway's (CR) 'main' line this Sunday should brace themselves for a harrowing time with the 136-year-old Hancock Bridge, one of the city's oldest bridges from the British era, set to be demolished on January 10. 

The bridge, which was built way back in 1889, will be gone in 18 hours. However, this would mean the cancellation of 150 local train services, 42 long distance trains and short termination of around 20 long distance trains either at Dadar or Kurla.

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The stone bridge, situated between Sandhurst Road and Byculla railway stations, is around five metres above the tracks. Pic/Datta Kumbhar  

Mid-day was the first to report way back in April 2014 about this bridge being demolished in the article ‘135-year-old piece of Mumbai history to be demolished’. The CR authorities will begin work from 12.20 am on January 10 and the demolition and clearance activity will continue till 6.20pm.

"Suburban services will remain suspended between CST and Byculla during this period. However, there shall be no mega block on the Harbour line and people can use this to come to CST,” said Narendra Patil, chief PRO, Central Railway.

Normally on a Sunday, CR runs 446 train services on Harbour line instead of the regular 577 train services. Meanwhile, they shall run 476 train services on the Main line as against 626 train services. On the Trans-Harbour line 210 trains will run as against 186 trains which were scheduled to run.

The bridge, which currently connects Mazgaon and Umerkhadi, will be demolished because it's not only dangerous unsafe but also that there is very little space – around 4.27 meters – between the height from track's top of overhead cables. The demolition, which will cost around Rs 2.6 crore, will see two cranes having capacity of 300 tonnes each being used.

Built in 1879 and rebuilt in 1923, Hancock Bridge was named after Colonel H F Hancock, who served as the chairman of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) during 1877-78.

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