Mumbai’s traffic woes are set to get a little easier as two key bridges in the eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai are expected to become operational in the next two months, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Friday.
According to civic officials, the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge, which is a key east-west connector in Andheri, is fully ready now.
Besides constructing the new Gokhale Bridge, the civic authorities also had to realign the C D Barfiwala Flyover which was constructed in 2008 and would originate from Juhu and connect with the north-south arms of the old Gokhale Bridge, which has been in existence since 1960.
The latter was demolished in 2022, and a new bridge was constructed in its place, which was opened for vehicular movement on February 26 this year.
However, due to the guidelines of railways, since this bridge passes above the railway tracks, the BMC constructed the new Gokhale Bridge at an elevated height of six metres, resulting in misalignment of its arms with the Barfiwala Flyover. After partially opening the Gokhale bridge last year, the work of merging the two structures were taken up by the authorities.
“The primary construction work for the Gokhale Bridge is 100% complete. The remaining balance work will be achieved by April 30, following which a decision on opening it for vehicular movement will be taken up after consulting with the traffic police,” Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (projects) told the Indian Express. Bangar inspected the progress of the construction work of the two bridges on Friday.
Civic officials said that at present the work of installing crash barriers, noise barrier, and road signages, setting up of scaffoldings, painting the lanes and installation of lights are underway and will be completed in the next few days.
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Besides this, another key east-west flyover at Vikhroli is also 95% completed, said civic authorities. The officials said that this bridge will be completed by May 31, 2025 following which it will be opened for vehicular movement.
Originally conceived in 1997, the bridge was proposed as an alternative to a level crossing that existed at Vikhroli. For east-west travel, commuters often used to trespass the crossing and, in many cases, people had lost their lives. Following this, the authorities mooted the proposal of building this bridge as an alternative. Even though the crossing was sealed during the early 2000s, the bridge still couldn’t be built within a decade after its conceptualisation and it was only in 2018 that the tenders for this bridge were finally floated and work orders issued in 2020.
The bridge will connect Eastern Express Highway in the east with Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg in the west. Till date there is no direct east-west link in Vikhroli, and locals have to either take the ROB from Ghatkopar or Kanjurmarg for their commute. The flyover will also provide pedestrians direct access to the platforms. Therefore, once operational, the bridge will bring down commute time to seven minutes which today take at least 25-30 minutes or even more depending on the traffic movement.
“At present, the project is on track and work is ongoing at full pace. Despite the initial hurdles this bridge is now nearing completion, and we are expecting it to open at the earliest after the work gets completed by May 31. This bridge will bring down the traffic woes in the eastern suburbs by a significant level. One of the key features of this ROB is that this is the country’s longest bridge that will pass above the railway tracks and instead of opening it in phases, we will be opening it in entirety for the traffic movement,” Bangar said.