MRIDC floats tenders for 17 new RoBs in Mumbai

The Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (MRIDC) has formed a JV with the Maharashtra government and Indian Railways to rebuild British era cable stayed rail-over-bridges (RoBs) across the city, said official sources, adding that there are 17 ROBs in Mumbai that MRIDC (also known as Maha Rail) has been asked to reconstruct for both Central and Western Railways. These include 15 ROBs for which BMC has approached them, while for 2 ROBs at Elphinstone Road and Sewri, they have signed a MoU with MMRDA. The ROBs are located at Byculla, Frere bridge (Grant Road), Ollivant bridge (Mazgaon), Mahalaxmi, Bellasis Raod (Mumbai Central), Currey Road, Tilak bridge and Reay Road, among others. Structural and architectural design consultants who specialize in designing of cable stayed bridges will be empaneled for rebuilding the old ROBs in the suburban areas, for which tenders have been called. Demolishing the existing ROBs will cause lot of inconvenience to locals so the plan is to construct a new ROB at the same location above the existing one; then demolish the old, once the new ROB is ready for use, said an official spokesperson of MRIDC.