Vikhroli railway overbridge in Mumbai likely to be ready by July

Originally conceived in 1997, the bridge was proposed as an alternative to a level crossing that existed at Vikhroli. Commuters travelling in the east-west direction often used to trespass the crossing and in many cases, people had lost their lives. Following this, the authorities mooted a proposal to build Vikhroli 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. It was only in 2018 that the tenders for the bridge were finally floated and work orders issued.

Significance of the bridge:

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 local residents have to either take the ROB from Ghatkopar or Kanjurmarg for their journey.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.

Features of the bridge:

This bridge will be India’s longest bridge having an open-web-girder system that will run above railway tracks. The total length of the girders will be 100 metres and will be made of stainless steel. The weight of each girder is around 1,100 metric tonnes. The total length of this bridge would be around 480 metres and it will have two carriageways for east-west vehicular movement. Alongside these, the bridge will also have footpaths for pedestrian movement.

Deadline and cost:

After the work orders were issued, the deadline was fixed in 2020. However, the authorities failed to achieve this deadline and it was later postponed to 2022. Considering the delay in removing the encroachment, the delay was again pushed twice by a year and the civic body had issued a final deadline in July. The initial cost of the project at the time of issuing work order stood at Rs 70 crore. However owing to multiple delays the cost now stands at Rs 180 crore.

Administration speaks:

“This bridge had initially met with a few hurdles. That’s why the project got delayed by a few years. At present, the project is on track and work is ongoing at full pace. 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. Instead of opening it in phases we will be opening it in entirety for the traffic movement,” Abhijit Bangar, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Projects, told The Indian Express.