Railway bridge work hit by row over cables

However,divisional railway engineer Shiv Kumar in a letter to RITES,the consultants,has said that blocks would be given only after the procurement of steel cables. The contractor firm Ajaypal Mangal and Company has told the Thane Municipal Corporation,the implementing agency,that steel cables will be procured only after the blocks are sanctioned. The contractor justified its stance saying that the cables are expensive and in case blocks are not granted for a month they would be vulnerable to corrosion particularly during monsoon. Once that happens the contractor apprehends rejection of the steel cables and financial loss.

A railway engineer involved in the project said that the condition on sanctioning block on procurement of cables has been imposed to ensure that the contractor does not reuse the broken cables which should be discarded.

“Though our engineers and officers are present at the site when the work is on,they may be influenced by the contractors and may turn a blind eye to the reuse of broken cables,” said the engineer involved in the project.

There are three sets of cables and each has 19 strands of steel running through the entire length of 43.63 metre girder. Each set of cable weighs about 3 tonnes and costs about Rs 2.5 lakh.

Work on the Thane Kopri bridge was initiated by the TMC in 2002.