After enormous delays and several issues related to permissions from railway authorities, work on the Versova-Ghatkopar metro pillar to be erected inside the railway boundary has finally begun.
But with barely three hours of work permitted every night, construction workers of the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd (MMOPL) are struggling to get the pillar up, which is crucial to the construction of the 183-metre-long railway overbridge of the city’s first metro.
The Rs35 crore steel bridge that will run from Andheri west to Andheri east over the railway tracks, will rest on four crucial pillars — one at Andheri west, two at Andheri east and the 6-meter-tall fourth pillar (Pillar 130a) in between railway tracks close to Andheri railway station, on which construction has now begun, will prove most critical.
“The power blocks sanctioned by the railways for 111 days and for durations varying from 1 hour 55 minutes to 3 hours 40 minutes, are helping speed up construction. The other two pillars at Andheri east are ready and the work for the pillar at Andheri (West) is in progress,” informed Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar in a written statement.
However, there is no mention of MMOPL’s demand for a five-hour mega block to ensure speedy completion of the work.
According to MMOPL sources, even if the workers get three hours to construct the pillar, one hour each is wasted in setting up and dismantling materials. “We get only one hour for actual work. If we get some weekends with five-hour mega blocks, we can finish work faster,” said a source close to the development.
