Iron bar dangling from bridge brings WR services to a halt

MUMBAI: A little over two weeks after the pedestrian portion of Andheri’s Gokhale road over-bridge (ROB) collapsed, bringing Western Railway’s suburban services to a grinding halt for for almost a day, an iron bar was found dangling from a BMC pipeline running adjacent to the ROB on Thursday afternoon.
As the bar was hanging very close to the overhead wires of suburban trains, the Western Railway, as a precautionary measure, suspended fast services for half an hour.The dangling bar was removed, and a rope was used to hold fast another part as a temporary measure.
Hundreds of commuters were badly hit by the suspension of services—while many were stranded in trains, others on crowded platforms. Several passengers who were in a train that had halted on the track a little ahead of Andheri station, jumped out and and started walking along the tracks.
A railway official said the iron bar on the north side of the bridge—the pedestrian portion that crashed was on south side—was detected by a team that was at the spot for a safety audit. The official said the iron bar could have come in contact with the wires, leading to “problems” and affecting services. “But this was averted as it was taken out on time,” he said. A senior WR official later said the bar was not dangling from the Gokhale bridge which is maintained by the railways, but “on the BMC pipeline bridge”.
Train services were suspended on the Up fast track from 12.25 pm. The Up fast trains were diverted from Goregaon and Down fast trains were diverted from Santacruz station.
A passenger said, “Trains were running late and then there was bunching of a few trains. This caused further delays.” A railway official however said the block was during "non-peak hours" so not many commuters were affected.