MUMBAI: The Western Railway and the BMC are at it again. Months after fighting over who would rebuild Lower Parel's Delisle bridge, they are now caught in a similar dispute over construction of rail over-bridges (ROB) at Mahalaxmi-one of them proposed to be the first cable-stayed rail over-bridge in island city.The existing ROB at Mahalaxmi, almost 100 years old, has become highly congested with large residential complexes coming up on chunks of erswhile textile mill land in recent decades. When ready, the two bridges will be crucial connectors. However, the project is getting delayed with the BMC and railways asking each other to construct the ROB portion over the railway line.While one ROB has been proposed connecting Dr E Moses Road with Dhobi Ghat , the other will be link Keshavrao Khade Marg with Sant Ghadge Maharaj Chowk and Mahalaxmi racecourse When asked about the delay in the project, a civic official said the BMC had sent the General Arrangement Drawings (GAD) of the proposed ROBs to the railway authorities for an approval in March. The official said that the railway sent a response recently with a clause that "The portion of ROB over railway shall be executed by the MCGM under the supervision of railway engineer."However, BMC officials say that the railways has to construct the ROB portion over the railway line. Officials pointed out that all bridges over the railway premises are constructed and maintained by the railways."Besides for us to enter into railway land for any work whatsoever is considered to be trespassing. The Railways Act 1989 states that if the railway administration requires, the state government or local authority while executing any work should pay the whole of the cost of work and the expense for maintaining the work to the railway administration as may be considered just and reasonable," said an official.The WR's chief public relations officer Ravinder Bhakar said, "We never undertake construction of ROBs on behalf of city agencies above railway tracks. We only approve the drawing and the work is carried out under out under our supervision. There has been no such request with the civic agencies that we should undertake construction above our portion."In July this year too, there was a similar dispute between the two authorities over who would reconstruct Delisle bridge. It is now decided that railways would construct the portion within railway premises while the BMC would construct the approaches.Asked about the disputes, an WR official on the condition of anonymity said, "We are carrying out construction of Lower Parel bridge on the instruction of railway minster after the issue cropped during coordination committee meeting with BMC. We ourselves construct and maintain railway bridges across the zones whose track kilometres is thousands and areas. What if similar demands keep coming from civic agencies from other parts of India? Do we have the resources and manpower to do the work to be done by local bodies?"

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