Mumbai: Many ‘Gokhale Bridges’ in the city

Mumbai: Andheri's derelict Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge–which until recently provided seamless east-west connectivity over the railway tracks–is certainly not the last bridge to shut. In the years and decades to come, a few more bridges will have to undergo either major repairs or reconstruction, causing tremendous commuting inconvenience to Mumbaikars.

Secondly, though the authorities claim that the Gokhale bridge will be ready in two years, the BMC's past records shows it will take more than a couple of years.

Back in July 2018, when Delisle Road bridge at Lower Parel was shut for reconstruction, back then, the civic officials had claimed that the inconvenience to motorists and commuters will be for two years, that is by 2022. Since then, deadlines have been deferred several times, with the latest one to be December 2022; which is certainly to be missed.

“The Delisle bridge should be ready by March 2023,” said an official.

Similarly, Hancock Bridge was closed back in November 2015. It took several deadline revisions along with rounds of litigation for it to get rebuilt. Eventually, it took seven years for it to be readyagain for public use. It was only in August 2022 that vehicular traffic started using it and the first public transport bus plied over it earlier this week. For almost seven years, several lakh people were inconvenienced.

In August this year, pedestrian and vehicular traffic was disallowed over the Carnac Bridge, with an assurance that demolition and reconstruction will be done by June 2024.

Whenever there has been involvement of multiple government agencies, especially Indian Railways, the wait is never ending with the government agencies getting into blame game for the delay. Andheri’s Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge was first completely shut in July 2018 for almost a week, thereafter, it was partially reopened with a promise of redoing the shut portion in a couple of years. Over four years have passed by since then and now the entire bridge will be shut causing even more inconvenience to the citizens.

Once the Delisle ROB is reopened, the authorities may announce the closing of Elphinstone Road Bridge, Currey Road Bridge and Byculla’s S-bridge. In the past, the Central Railway officials have mentioned the need to raise the height of these bridges due to conversion of the railway electrical system from 1,500 volts direct current to 25,000 volts alternating current.

In other words, Mumbai’s infrastructure has started creaking and a long spell of inconvenience is in store to upgrade the metropolis.