THANE: The Central Railway (CR) is fast-tracking construction of the foot overbridge (FOB) at the Kalyan-end of Diva railway station that will ease the load on the existing FOBs at the platform with dense commuter traffic. The work of the bridge was moving at a slow pace until now due to lack of required blocks.Accordingly, the Railways have now scheduled a six-hour mega block to take up construction of the bridge starting post-midnight (intervening night of Monday-Tuesday) and ending around 5:40am the following morning. The Panvel-Diva shuttle service has been cancelled while the Diva-Sawantwadi shuttle will depart from Panvel on Tuesday while the 12051 Dadar Madgaon Janshatabdi express will be detained at Bhandup for nearly 1.30 minutes.The under-construction bridge, said officials, will be 12m-wide connecting the east and west side of the city to all the railway suburban and long-distance platforms. The work on installing girders is likely to be finished by this week after which work on installing the slab and landings will be undertaken, added officials. The height of the bridge has also been adjusted so as to match the existing safety norms thanks to the presence of the alternating current overhead supply wires running underneath it.The bridge is likely to be thrown open to public possibly before year-end, said railway officials. Simultaneously, the old bridge at the CSMT-end will be dismantled so that commuters get adequate options to move in and out of the station that witnesses a daily footfall of nearly one lakh commuters.Activists said that a bridge at this end was much required as the two existing ones connecting the city-sides are the South-end of the station. “Passengers staying at the North-end of the station like those at Dativli are forced to either travel down the tracks or take a circuitous route via the bridge available at the Mumbai end of the platform, which is time consuming,” said Adesh Bhagat , a railway activist and member of the zonal railway user’s consultative committee from Diva.“The new bridge is an important connection at the railway station. This will be the fourth facility at the station and will have escalators and staircases at each of the seven platforms at the station. The load at the station will be evenly distributed once this new bridge is made operational,” said an official from CR.Member of Parliament Dr Shrikant Shinde , who represents the area, said a skywalk is being constructed at the east side of the station, which will be connected to this bridge and will solve the present chaos outside the railway premises. “There is massive congestion outside the station premises presently, which will be eased once the new bridge is completed and connected with the upcoming skywalk, which will also be linked to the two other bridges at the station,” he said.The new bridge is an important connection at the railway station. This will have escalators and staircases at each of the seven platforms. The load at the station will be evenly distributed once this new bridge is made operational

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