In a relief for the passengers who alight at the King's Circle railway station, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday, February 8, opened up a portion of the King's Circle footover bridge (FOB). With the opening of this FOB, lakhs of commuters who alight at King's Circle station and intend to cross towards Gandhi Market or Shanmukhananda auditorium will now be able to do so without any hassle.
The civic body had shut down two FOBs connected to King's Circle railway station, for inspection after a re-audit was conducted in wake of the fatal Himalaya FOB collapse in March. The re-audit revealed that the structures had some damages and were therefore, closed for public use.
According to the locals, the BMC had started a free BEST bus service to assist the passengers since it was not possible to cross the BA road considering the speed at which the vehicles would pass. However, the only problem was, the BEST bus would ferry passengers only after it was filled to full capacity. Due to which, the citizens in rush would have to face unnecessary delay.
As per a BMC official, the South side FOB has been reopened whereas the North side is still undergoing repair work. The official also added that there was no need to replace the entire structure and it only required repair work. Accordingly, all the corroded structural parts of the bridge have been replaced. A load of the bridge has also been reduced by removing the stone flooring and replacing it with mastic asphalt.
BJP corporator Nehal Shah told TOI that it was a challenging job to undertake the repairs as there was constant traffic below the busy BA road. Therefore, the repair work was only conducted during few hours post midnight.
After the bridge was re-opened by BMC, the locals along with the BJP corporator performed a small opening ceremony for the structure.
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