The Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (MahaRail) is currently dismantling the 112-year-old Elphinstone bridge built over active railway tracks in Mumbai. Managing Director Rajesh Jaiswal spoke about the engineering challenges and the progress made so far.
Explaining the initial hurdles, Jaiswal noted that the bridge was constructed at a time when train frequency and the number of railway lines were far lower. Today, the 90-metre structure spans two Western Railway and two Central Railway lines, with thousands of trains running daily. Extended railway blocks of two to three days would have made dismantling easier, but such a shutdown was not feasible.
Instead, work is being carried out within short 2–3 hour nightly corridor blocks between the last and first local trains, along with 4–6 hour mega blocks on weekend nights. The bridge has been divided into three spans of around 30 metres each. Steel deck segments are cut during these blocks and lifted using two 800 MT cranes placed at either end. The west span has already been dismantled in about 15 to 16 blocks, and work on the central and east spans is underway. The central span is considered the most challenging due to its length and distance from the cranes.
For the final girder removal, a longer railway block will be required. Overhead equipment (OHE) work consumes nearly three hours of a four-hour block, limiting crane productivity.
Looking ahead, Jaiswal said reconstruction will be smoother. The new double-decker bridge will feature a single 132-metre open web girder with no intermediate piers between railway lines. Fabricated in Noida, it will be launched once deeper foundations and wider pillars are completed.
While the original deadline was October 2026, MahaRail is targeting August 2026, aiming to complete the project within 10 months.
Source: The Indian Express
