Tough 4 months ahead for CR commuters

The impending SantacruzChembur Link Road project thatrsquos expected to radically reduce travel time between the cityrsquos western suburbs and Navi Mumbai is causing some serious labour pain to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC the railways and now train commuters ahead of its birthing Construction of the last and most important leg of over the tracks on KurlaVidyavihar stretch could entail a relentless bout of mega blocks in the next four months which might lead to delays and cancellations of train services on the main line Officials supervise as steel girders are placed on the muchawaited flyover of the SCLR project File Pic MSRDC has asked CR for around 4045 blocks for launching of girders in the days to come Work on SCLR which has been going on since 2003 is expected to be complete by June 2013 So the road development authority wants a specific time period during which girders can be launched connecting two pillars that would cover six rail tracks One span of this steel bridge will be of 52 metres and the other 20 metres in length The final and most significant hurdle for completion of the eastwest connectivity lies at Kurla above the railway tracks The steel bridge to be constructed here would go right from the Harbour line at Tilak Nagar via Kurla above the tracks and join the pillar inside the car shed where trains are parked at night and also undergo maintenance ldquoWe have informed CR that we will require around 4045 blocks in order to complete the workrdquo said S Nage chief engineer MSRDC MSRDC and railways have finally decided to go for steel girders like the ones used in bridges over Ganga and Brahmaputra after several drawings and blueprints were discarded The plan previously was to have two sections of 36 metres each for a cementconcrete structure Sources in CR said that they are still discussing the dates for launching these girders which would finally lead to completion of the sixlane eastwest bridge ldquoWe are holding talks with MSRDC over the blocks demanded by them We will decide in our internal meetings whether so many blocks are required or notrdquo said a senior Central Railway official CR will also inform the Commissioner of Railway Safety as the move is likely to affect rail commuters at large Earlier in the first week of December the agencies completed a similar exercise for SCLR near Tilak Nagar railway station on the Harbour line Five steel girders weighing 40 tonnes each were positioned on the underconstruction flyover between Kurla and Tilak Nagar railway stations in a span A huge crane with a lifting capacity of over 300 tonnes was used for the job During this time several train services were stopped on the Harbour line Thane trouble About 20 days ago there was acute trouble on Central Railway after the authorities carried out major work of shifting the route relay interlocking and testing of 25000volt power supply at Thane Nearly 600 services were cancelled in a period of 56 days and several services ran late Also many commuters fell from trains because of overcrowding CR officials had then said that they wouldnrsquot operate train services henceforth during implementation of similar important works and mega blocks Sources said that of these 45 blocks at least 45 would require complete shutdown of train services near Kurla especially while girder launchingu00a0