Commuters’ woes to end on January 25 as Patripool ROB is ready to be opened

Long wait to end in 2 days with CM slated to inaugurate Rail Over Bridge through video conference

KALYAN: Here is some good news for commuters of the twin cities of Kalyan and Dombivli. The work of the new Patripool Rail Over Bridge (ROB), which had made travelling a nightmare, has been completed and will be thrown open to public on January 25.

It will be inaugurated by CM Uddhav Thackeray through a video conference. The news of its opening has created a buzz in the city with the photos of the new, aesthetically and technically-advanced bridge going viral since Thursday night.

The bridge, which is already lauded as a first of its kind in the twin city by netizens for its contemporary looks, has the longest 76m web link girder in the entire Mumbai Metropolitan region, as per the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) officials.

The bridge led to major congestion in both Kalyan and Dombivli. It was subjected to many protests and became a favourite topic for memes on social media.

Shashikant Sontakke, chief engineer of MSRDC, said, “The bridge will be officially inaugurated and opened for vehicles on January 25 for the vehicles as the work is completed. Apart from the longest web link girder, the bridge also has another girder of 33m. Both these girders were built in Hyderabad.”

Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde said that the bridge work faced many hurdles though the structural work was sped up in the last few months. “Usually, it takes eight months to build a girder but here, considering the need of the bridge, the girders were built in two-three months.”

The four major reasons that caused the delay were designing the bridge, approvals, opposition from residents and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shinde added, “The 104-yearold Patripool bridge was dismantled in an emergency after it was declared unsafe by IIT Bombay without any plan ready for the new bridge. Later on, the planning and designing were done and approval was sought. When the work began, the authorities realised that a drainage chamber was blocking the work, so the bridge was redesigned leading to a delay.”

On Friday, Shinde

and

MSRDC officials visited the newly-built bridge before its inauguration.

The MSRDC took up the work of the new Patripool Bridge in December 2018, two months after it was dismantled by the

Central Railway. During the lockdown, work at the site was completely stalled as the labourers deployed for work left for West Bengal. However, around 50 labourers were called back by a flight arranged for them.