The two bridges- 1,980 metres lengthy in total, have been constructed in the year 1864 – the exact same year as north India’s initially railway station was set up in the type of Delhi Junction to connect the national capital with the then Calcutta. (representational image)
Indian Railways’ 156-year-old two open bridges that fall beneath the Western Railway zone spanning two arms of the Thane Creek in between Panju Isle-Naigaon and Bhayander-Panju Isle are becoming dismantled. The two bridges- 1,980 metres lengthy in total, have been constructed in the year 1864 – the exact same year as north India’s initially railway station was set up in the type of Delhi Junction to connect the national capital with the then Calcutta. Both the bridges have been constructed by the Bombay Baroda & Central India (BB&CI) Railway and are 6 metres wide. Bridge Number 73 from Bhayander-Panju Isle (in the district of Thane) is 1,430 metres lengthy, although Bridge Number 75 from Panju Isle-Naigaon (in the district of Palghar) is 550 metres, the Western Railway zone confirmed to TheSpuzz Online.
According to Western Railways, on 12 April 1867, the initially train on the then Backbay-Virar sector ran. For practically 120 years, the two strategic bridges served the national transporter on Western Railways Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Ahmedabad routes. The zonal railways mentioned these two bridges handled all Mumbai regional trains from Churchgate to Virar, lengthy-distance passenger trains like Rajdhani Express, Jammu-Tawi Express, Frontier Mail, or Ahmedabad Passenger and other trains with numerous halts en route, other than heavily-laden freight trains.
According to the Western Railway zone, Bridge Number 75 was sold in February 2020, but due to COVID-19 lockdown, it could begin the dismantling work only from 5 November 2020. Now, nearly 80% of the dismantling work is completed and more than half the scrap delivery is accomplished. The dismantling work on Bridge Number 73 with gas cutters began on 20 December 2020, and about 35% progress has been accomplished. The complete dismantling work of the upper portions would be more than by the finish of January as per existing trends, prior to the work on the pillars rooted in the waters of Thane Creek is taken up.
For quite a few years, these two bridges have been utilized by the public of the 2.50 sq km car-free of charge Panju Isle, housing a population of approx 1,500. As per some estimates, the Western Railways could rake in an quantity of about Rs 3 crore from the 1,450 tonnes scrap iron that would be generated from these bridges.