The Gokhale bridge in Andheri, which is a crucial east-west connector, will not reopen before the monsoon, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials.
The BMC now expects to fully reopen the bridge by mid-November this year.
The earlier deadline to reopen the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge partially was on May 31; however, it has now been delayed again as civic officials fear that the work of fabrication may not be completed on time due to a strike at the steel plant in Chandigarh.
The announcement was made after Andheri (West) MLA Ameet Satam conducted a joint visit with BMC officials on Wednesday, April 19.
By June, bridge in BMC portion will be complete and the work of railway portion bridge will remain pending. Post July 15, it will require 3 months to complete the work in railway portion, then assembly and then final finishing. At this point of time, BMC is expecting the bridge to open by Diwali which would be in mid-November.
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In an official statement Satam, said, “As per the BMC, the design of the bridge in the railway portion was approved by Railways on February 2 and the order for steel girders in the railway portion were placed on February 8. However, the design of the girder is such that only two companies in India could fulfill it. And the one company with whom the order was placed went on a strike leading to delays. Subsequently, the order was placed with the other company, who will fulfill it by July 2023,” he said.
“While we understand that there would be a delay of 5 months from the date committed earlier, we need to understand that this is a highly specialised job and BMC is working in railway portion as per instructions of the railways,” Satam further added.
For those unversed, the bridge was closed on November 7 last year after being declared unsafe. Since then, traffic congestion in Andheri has increased.
The BMC had earlier assured that it would try to reopen one arm of the bridge before monsoon and fully reopen it by September 2023.
The railways completed dismantling the bridge last month, but the fabrication work of the bridge has been affected by the strike at the steel plant, according to civic sources.
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