Mumbai's Hancock bridge to be operational by November

According to sources, the developmental work on the Hancock bridge has been completed which has been ongoing for the last five years.

The Hancock Bridge is a bridge in Mumbai located between the suburban railway stations of Sandhurst Road and Byculla. On Sunday, June 6, the work of putting girders on the bridge coming on the railway track was done by the civic body of Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

According to sources, after the completion of other work, the bridge will be made to open for the traffic from November 2021. Meanwhile, the bridge was built in 1879. However, the bridge was demolished in 2016 in order for the BMC to carry out reconstruction work.

In recent developments, due to the lack of bridges, the citizens of the area had to make long detours to reach the other side of the railway line. Therefore, the locals had demanded that the bridge should be built soon. On the other hand, the contractors who were appointed by the municipal administration for the first time after issuing tenders were reportedly found guilty of road scam. Therefore, public interest litigation (PIL) was filed with regards to the case due to which the court had ordered the cancellation of the contract.

The BMC had earlier appointed Sai Projects for the construction of Hancock Bridge in October 2018 whereas the RITES was appointed in July 2018. The original cost of the contract given to RITES Limited was INR 1.80 crores for one year. However, the work was later modified with 751 metric tonne girders (beams) being replaced by 1,375 metric tonne girders.

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