Central Railway managed to dismantle the British era Carnac Bridge between CSMT and Masjid stations in Mumbai before time on Sunday after operating a 27-hour traffic block that was supposed to end at 2 am on Monday. The block on all suburban and mainline tracks as well the ones in the yard between CSMT and Byculla and CSMT and Wadala was in place from 11 pm on Saturday to 2 am on Monday.
“However, the first train departed from CSMT for Thane at 3.50 pm on Sunday, passing the Carnac Bridge dismantling site at 4 pm. Harbour line was restored by 7 pm. The bridge was built in 1866-67 and was declared unsafe by an expert team of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) in 2018, though the movement of heavy vehicles on it was stopped in 2014 itself.The heritage Carnac bridge had six stones having the inscription of the date of construction. They will be preserved suitably either at the heritage gully or museum area, informed the Central Railway Mumbai division. As many as 400 workers along with 30-35 officers and additional 100 supervisors were pressed into service to pull down the British era Carnac bridge. A total of four cranes, three cranes of 350 tonnes and one of 500 tonnes, and also four Hydra cranes for shifting of release material were deployed.