'Avoid dancing atop these bridges!' Mumbai civic body identifies 20 unsafe rail overbridges as city gears up for Ganesh visarjan

Ganpati Visarjan 2019: Day before Ganesh Visarjan or Anant Chaturdashi on Thursday (12 September), the Mumbai Police and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Wednesday issued directives while using the rail overbridges, thereby imposing restrictions on devotees taking part in immersion of Ganpati idols, claim reports. The civic body has recognised a total of 20 rail overbridges which could be risky. Of the twenty, four are from Central Line and 16 in the Western Line which have been identified as “dangerous” due to extra load. As several devotees use the bridges during the grand procession of the elephant-headed God on the final day of immersion, BMC officials have marked these bridges as old which needed extra care. [caption id=“attachment_4152283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation building. Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Safety guidelines issued by the BMC also include a ban on devotees dancing on top of the bridges when Ganpati idols are taken for immersion. “Devotees should be …divided into smaller groups. Sound systems should be switched off while traversing the bridge and no one should dance while on the bridge. Do not pause on the bridge and cross it quickly. Ensure that the bridge does not carry more than 16 tonnes at a time,” the guidelines issued by the civic authority said. Adhering to the safety of the people, Mumbai Police officials have said they have been asked to regulate the number of people atop the bridges at all times during Ganeshotsav. A police officer from the Marine Drive police station was quoted by The Tribune as saying, “Earlier there was concern about traffic jams and stampedes when Ganesh processions crossed the bridges. Now there is the question of safety of the bridge itself.” After the conclusion of the 10-day-long Ganpati festival, famous pandals — Lalbaugcha Raja and Ganesh Galli cha Raja attract thousands of devotees, thereby, adding extra pressure on the bridges. A special note by the civic body also mentioned, “The Ganesh devotees in the Mumbai city are hereby specially intimated that they should follow the above instructions very carefully while crossing the Chinchpokli Rail overbridge and Curry Road Rail overbridge and help MCGM and traffic police for systematic procession of Ganesh immersion.” According to the advisory issued, the following is the list of bridges declared dangerous by the BMC on Central Railway — 1) Ghatkopar Rail Overbridge 2) Curry Road Rail Overbridge 3) Arthur Road Rail Overbridge Or Chinchpokli Rail Overbridge 4) Byculla Rail Overbridge The list of bridges marked risky on Western Railway are as follows: 1) Marine Lines Rail Overbridge 2) Grant Road Ferrer Rail Overbridge 3) Sandhurst Road Rail Overbridge 4) French Rail Overbridge 5) Kennedy Rail Overbridge 6) Falkland Rail Overbridge 7) Bellais, near Mumbai Central Station 8) Mahalaxmi Rail Overbridge 9) Prabhadevi Rail Overbridge 10) Dadar Tilak Rail Overbridge 11) Veer Sarvarkar Rail Overbridge 12) Sudhir Phadke Rail OverbBridge 13) Dahisar Rail Overbridge 14) Milan Rail Overbridge 15) Vile Parle Rail Overbridge 16) Gokhale Rail Overbridge Most of the bridges mentioned by the civic body are on arterial roads carrying thousands of vehicles daily. Also read:  Ganesh Chaturthi 2019: Mumbai Police issues traffic advisory, deploys 50,000 cops across 129 immersion points