While Central Railways has done its part in building road over bridge to eliminate level crossing at Thakurli, civic corporation is yet to do its bit; until then, the crossing affects 6 lines every day
A CR official said the railways have completed their part of the bridge
Here's a level crossing that opens more than 38 times a day, delays over 200 services every day, and stops the entire Central Railway Mumbai network, almost literally. The worst part is that the road over bridge that was being built to eliminate this and was to open earlier this month, has now been further delayed.
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"The railways have completed their part of the bridge and the local civic body is building the approaches. Once the approaches are ready, the bridge will be opened, after which the Central Railway will approach the district collector to shut down the level crossing," a senior CR official said.
High density of traffic
"There are level crossings at Diva, Kalwa and Thakurli, but the problem at Thakurli is that the density of traffic is quite high. After Thakurli, the problem is at Diva which also opens as many times. These two are the most controversial ones delaying over 200 trains every day, followed by the one at Kalwa. At Thakurli and Diva, once the level crossing gate is opened, it remains open for over five minutes or sometimes even longer till the entire traffic passes," he said.
Until the local civic body builds the approaches to the road over bridge, the level crossing will be used. Sometimes it is kept open for over 5 minutes until the entire traffic crosses over
"The locals have no other means to go between east and west, so sometimes they are quite insistent and aggressive, and the crossing gate remains open. But in the process what effectively happens is that all the six lines - two slow, two fast and two meant for express trains - get blocked, bringing the system to a grinding halt," he added.
Ramesh Thakur, a local resident, said that the authorities had been building the bridge at Thakurli for quite some time but it is yet to be opened. The crossing is the lifeline of Thakurli and cannot be shut till an alternative option is given.
Corporation delaying work
The Central Railways thought it had solved the problem at Thakurli to start with, and had hoped to shut down the crossing by completing their part on time, but the local civic corporation has now been delaying it for the past two months citing some reason or the other. This has been affecting train services every day.
When mid-day visited the spot, it was found that quite a significant amount of work was pending, with just piers up and girders yet to be placed for the approaches. The landing road is also yet to be completed.
The local civic chief, however, said he was confident of opening the bridge before the monsoon sets in. "The bridge is ready and the approaches are in the process of being completed. This will be followed by installation of street lights etc, but all of it should be completed by the end of this month and I assure that the bridge will open before the monsoon sets in," Govind Bodake, municipal commissioner of Kalyan-Dombivli Corporation said.
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