10 JAN 1880 HANCOCK RAIL BRIDGE MUMBAI (BYCULLA)
17 November 2015
Century-old bridge over India's oldest rail lines to live on!
Rajendra B. Aklekar rajendraa (@) gmail.com One of the few oldest remaining road bridges over India's first train line in Mumbai will be demolished today as a part of an upgrade process to be replaced with a new one by the next year. However, the bridge will live on as old plaques and artefacts on the bridge would be carefully removed and incorporated in the new design of the bridge to retain its historic and heritage character. The Central Railway in Mumbai has issued a note saying that the bridge will remain closed for traffic on November 18 of vehicles and pedestrians as the dismantling process begins.
The old iron and stone Hancock Bridge between Sandhurst Road and Byculla stations on Mumbai railway was proving to be too low for new technology suburban electric trains, limiting their speed in the section and affecting the punctuality of the city’s lifeline as a whole. The line from Mumbai CST to Thane was the first train line opened in India in 1853 and then called the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company. It was renamed as Central Railway in 1951.
“The new bridge that is being built will be taller and bigger, allowing even double-deck trains to pass under it,” a railway official said. The work is being done by the Central Railway and the local civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in co-ordination. The BMC had deposited Rs 2.6 crore with the railways for the demolition and shifting of utilities and pipes. Elaborate traffic diversions have been put in place due for the dismantling process. Details here: Traffic The chief engineer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation SO Kori said that the old plaque and other artefacts on the bridge will be removed carefully and embedded in the new bridge design. The plaque has dates of its construction and the bridge name carved in stone.
The original Hancock Bridge was built in 1879 and rebuilt in the 1920s. It was named after Colonel HF Hancock, who was a member of the Municipal Corporation and also its president between 1877 and 1878. The bridge has a simple stone carved inscription on stone blocks that says: 1879 - Hancock Bridge Rebuilt 1923.
Once work on this is over, the next on the agenda is to dismantle and replace the 147-year-old Carnac Bridge in January 2016, on the same line, closer to Mumbai CST. While the Carnac Bridge connects Crawford Market with the dockland area, Hancock Bridge connects old Mazgaon and Dongri areas. The Carnac Bridge named after former Bombay Governor James Rivett Carnac and a jetty named after him further east, has multi-lingual stone plaques that too will be saved during the upgrade.
While the three corners of Carnac Bridge, built in 1868, have the name of the bridge inscribed in three languages, English, Devnagari and Gujarati, the fourth side announces the dates of its opening and a symbol of an anchor.
CR operates 18-hr mega block to dismantle British-era bridge
Press Trust of India | Mumbai January 10, 2016 Last Updated at 21:48 IST
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The Central Railway today operated an 18-hour-long 'mega block', or curtailment of trains, on its main line between Byculla and CST railway stations to dismantle the iconic 136-year-old Hancock Bridge. The mega block, which began at 12.20 AM, was lifted in evening, resuming the suburban train services on the stretch after 6:20 PM. Though the block was squarely criticised by commuters, its operation passed off hassle-free as many people preferred to stay indoors due to Sunday while some took either Harbour line route to reach CST or Dadar to reach Churchgate station in South Mumbai. "The first suburban train (after block was lifted) to Asangaon left CST at 7.10 PM, while the first mail train departed from CST at 7.45 PM," Central Railway senior PRO A K Jain said. Claiming "successful completion" of the block, Jain gave credit for the same to advanced planning and focused work of engineering staff. Built in 1879 and rebuilt in 1923, Hancock Bridge was named after Colonel H F Hancock, who served as the chairman of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation between 1877-78. The bridge was closed for road and pedestrian traffic since November 18, 2015. It will be rebuilt later. On razing of the bridge, Jain said the task was accomplished with the help of 650 staff and 50 engineers. "Two huge trains weighing 300-tonne each worked seamlessly for 18 hours to ensure timely resumption of the suburban and mail services," he said. Deputy Chief Engineer (Construction), Dadar, Rajeev Mishra, in-charge of the operation, explained how the bridge was dismantled. "First, we closed down the carriageway and after diverting utility cables, pipelines etc, we removed concrete from troughs and cut the rivets. "Then gas cutters were used to cut inter-connected troughs by individual members and there were two 300-tonne capacity cranes deployed with standby on either abutment. The steel troughs were lifted by a road crane and scrap disposed of through road trailers," Mishra told PTI. The officer said that carrying out the operation without damaging cables of various utility services, water pipelines etc. Was a challenging task and "our mission was accomplished without hassles". Jain said the senior railway officials, including general manager S K Sood, coordinated to complete the task. On the measures taken to prevent any hassles for passengers, Jain said continuous announcements were made at various suburban stations about the block. "Being Sunday, most of the commuters avoided travelling by train that caused no hardships to commuters," he said. A daily commuter from Thane, Geetesh Srivastava said though there was no chaos as such but the CR failed to apprise passengers properly. "Though trains were bound to terminate at Byculla station only, the indicators and front panels of the local trains displayed CST as their last destination," he said. Meanwhile, to manage the passengers' rush, the BEST (the transport wing of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking) plied extra buses on roads while the number of services on Harbour Line (Panvel-CST) too were increased to cater to passengers.
The Legend of Indian Rail Lines
Book Review
The Legend of Indian Rail Lines
By Ganpat Teli
‘Halt Station India: The Dramatic Tale of the Nation’s First Rail Lines’ by Rajendra B. Aklekar, Rupa Books, Delhi, 2014.
Sometimes when we travel in the trains, we usually think of how the railway made its ways in India? What was the story of the first rail line of the country? How the project was made and it progressed? What were the challenges before the mission of laying lines? What were the reactions of local people towards this strange happening? How this network of track spread all around the country. The answers of some of these various questions is ‘Halt Station India: The Dramatic Tale of the Nation’s First Rail Lines’ by Rajendra B. Aklekar. As railways enthuse, he narrated the story of advent and development of rail lines particularly in Bombay in this book. Sir Mark Tully rightly appreciated the book in the forewords that “Rajendra B. Aklekar’s meticulous research- and his scholarship which enables him to interpret his finding- throws new light on the way those railways were built- the laying of the lines, why they were laid where they were laid, how the demands on them changed and how they met those demands.” He collected facts from various sources and created this wonderful book by putting them together.
The first Chapter ‘The Story of an Experimental line’ of the book is an account of emergence and materialization of the idea of first rail line (not only) in India (but also in Asia). Though the activities related to the steam engines were taking place in India even before 1850 when architect of the first line of India James John Berkley landed in Bombay but the first formal passenger train service was flagged off on 16th April 1853 from Bori Bandar (known as VT) to Thana hauled by Falkland (the locomotive named after Bombay governor of the time Lucius Bentinck Cary, the tenth Lord Viscount of Falkland). Some other engineers also joined Berkley’s team at the site but couldn’t acclimatize with the weather condition and even succumbed to the death. The construction of the line was really a big challenge in a difficult terrain.
Aklekar noted down all the activities related to the construction of the first line, such as survey of the line, arrangement of construction materials, planning of line, arrival of locomotive and coaches, trial run, enthusiasm of locals and railway workers and finally the description of the first run. Apart from these details, Akelkar also noted socio-economic aspect of this development. There was not a very good relationship between English and local workers. Local workers were also on strikes with their demands. When trains were started running there were many reservations among the people of upper social strata. Rich and people belongs to the upper castes (both Hindus and Muslims) were not happy to share their space with the common people.
Next Three chapters of the book ‘Walking down the first Railway Line’, ‘The Romance of the Harbour line’ and ‘The Wonders of BB&CI Railway line’ are interesting reportage of tracking along the lines. Akelkar described the specifications of the station one by one and also traced the remains of the day. He thoroughly enjoyed the art of narration while telling the stories of the lines and stations. Line and Stations between Victoria Terminus and Thana have been gone through the winds of change but remains of Great Indian Peninsula Railways (now central line) are still there. Similarly he also journeyed the lines of Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway (Now Western Line) and Harbour line.
Fifth chapter of the book ‘Nostalgia Along the Lines’ is an collection of the memoirs by the people of the early days of railways in Bombay. Next chapter, ‘Forgotten Lines and Lost Journeys’ is focused on the important lines and stations which don’t exist now. Bori Bunder, from where the first train of India originated is more or less existing in the name of UNESCO world heritage site Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus and known as Victoria Terminus but Colaba, Bombay Backbay, Ballard Pier Mole, Mazgaon and Bhor Ghat Reversing stations are now became chapters of the History. Similarly Trams Services and some Industrial lines disappeared in the crowd of the cities. Author of the book devoted one separate chapter on the tram services in Mumbai. In the last part of the book he covered all the recent developments related to the railways in Mumbai, introduction of trains with new technology, mono rail and metro.
Railway is a passion for Rajendra Aklekar and the same is reflected in this book. He narrated the story in a floury language. He is a well informed writer, he has every possible facts related to the particular person, event or item. For example he shows how the root of Musjid Bunder station connected with Tipu Sultan, the ballot boxes of first General Election of the India carried by railway from Mumbai to all over India and how the hall was cooled during annual session of Indian National Congress. Author also uncovered reason behind the naming of station as ‘road’. During the epidemic Britishers didn’t want to come in touch with local people so the rail lines were kept outside of the town and nearby station was named after the same town as road. Aklekar also provided old photographs of the various stations and lines. The book is a combination of a scholarship and fiction. On the one hand, he used various references from books, newspaper archives and journals; on the other side he has mastered the art of storytelling.
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