Finally, the wait is over for Mumbaikars, as after over five years, the Delisle bridge has been partially opened up for public now. Today onwards, June 1, the left arm of the bridge in Lower Parel is thrown open for the traffic. However, the entire bridge works are expected to be completed by mid of July.
The west arm of the bridge is the one that will connect GK Marg with NM Joshi Marg.
The dismantling of the bridge significantly impacted the travel time of local residents and the thousands of office-goers who regularly commute to Lower Parel.
As per WR officials, the bridge is 89.89 mtr long, consisting of 3 lanes of 11 mtr and 1.8 mtr footpath. The ROB has a skew of 65 degree with railway tracks and located at the north end of Lower Parel station.
It is pertinent to note that since nearly five years since Delisle bridge was shut for traffic after it was found to be unsafe. Earlier, the BMC had earlier set a target to reopen the bridge by May 31.
Therefore, considering the brief history of delays, oppositions alleged that it is unlikely that work on the bridge will be completed within these deadlines.
The Delisle ROB was found unsafe in safety Audit in July 2018. It was decided that the work of dismantling and rebuilding of Railway portion will be done by Western Railway and the work of approaches dismantling and rebuilding will be executed by MCGM. Railway had taken up the dismantling work of span covering over five railway suburban tracks and completed in record 5 months period in February 2019. Dismantling of abutments couldn’t be taken up for want of removal of encroachments by MCGM which was done in May 2019 and work of dismantling of abutments were completed in June 2019.
Further, if reports are to be believed, the contract for rebuilding the railway portion was awarded for INR 87 crore in February 2019, and WR began construction in November 2019. The BMC awarded a tender worth INR 138 crore for dismantling and rebuilding the approach roads on January 27, 2020.
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