At Kurla railway station, get ready to walk with the dead

Central Railway will be demolishing a public foot overbridge between Kurla and Sion stations to rebuild it; hence the processions will be allowed to use the FOB at Kurla

rail foot overbridge

Don’t be surprised if you find people carrying dead bodies to the neighbouring burial ground using the railway foot overbridge (FOB) at Kurla after December 19. The Central Railway will be demolishing a 40-year-old public FOB, thus allowing funeral processions to use the rail FOB at Kurla station.

After the bridge is demolished, the funeral processions may be seen on the rail foot overbridge. Representation pic

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CR officials said they will soon undertake the Herculean task of demolishing the Kasaiwada FOB that is between Sion and Kurla stations. This is among the longest public FOBs that covers both Main and Harbour lines — Kurla on Main line and Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar on Harbour. Sources said it needed to be demolished as it prevents smooth running of all kinds of trains.

For instance, on December 6, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the Goa-Kurla LTT double decker train, comprising 10-coaches, including two power coaches. Sources said that trains like these are unable to reach CST through this route as the bridge’s height prevents them. According to a CR officer, a new bridge with both increased height and breadth will be constructed in next two months.

Currently the height of the bridge is 4.82 metres from the track and the new bridge will be at a height of 5.9 metres. Similarly, the breadth of the new bridge will be widened to 4 metres from the current 2.44 metres. “We will be carrying out an 8-hour block on December 19 for demolishing this bridge,” said Amitabh Ojha, Divisional Railway Manager (Mumbai), CR.

The last train from CST to Kasara will be leaving at 11.30 pm on December 18 (Saturday), and at 11.30 pm towards Panvel as well. Services will be started on the mainline as usual on December 20 (Sunday), but the first train will leave Panvel as late as 8 am.

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