The century-old Sion Road Over Bridge (ROB) will close after Holi on the night of March 27. Subsequently, maintenance work will commence on the Central Railway bridge.
According to the Central Railway, in light of the Holi and Dhulivandan festivals, the Sion ROB is scheduled to cease vehicular traffic from the night of March 27th. With Holi occurring on March 24th and Dhulivandan, along with the tenth-grade final exam, slated for March 25th, the bridge will be closed for vehicular traffic from the night of March 27th. Maintenance work on the bridge will then commence on March 28th.
January 20, 2024, was fixed for the bridge's closure. The prospect of the bridge's closure caused immense distress among citizens. Consequently, elected representatives intervened, postponing the maintenance work until February 29, 2024. However, due to the examinations of tenth and twelfth-grade students, the bridge's maintenance was further delayed.
The demolition process is anticipated to span six months, followed by an 18-month reconstruction period. This initiative aims to create space for laying tracks for the fifth and sixth lines, enhancing the efficiency of mail and suburban train services with dedicated tracks. Safety concerns were highlighted by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) in its April 2020 audit report, which deemed the Sion bridge unsafe due to deteriorating structural components.
The report noted that the first two I-girders from the north side, the RCC deck slab, and the RCC parapet wall are deteriorated and should be repaired or rehabilitated within three months. The CR initiated repair work for some time and ultimately decided to demolish the bridge as part of the development work for laying new tracks below.