The increasing pressure from the citizens of Andheri has forced the BMC to speed up the work on the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge. The concreting work on the bridge has now been completed to ensure one side of the bridge is open by the end of February. However, it will be shut down again during the second girder launch. Only light motor vehicles will be allowed in the first phase, said the civic sources.
Fifth deadline of February 15
The fifth deadline of February 15, to open one side of the east-west connector has been extended till February 29. The irate local citizens have sent letters to the municipal commissioner, Iqbal Singh Chahal, demanding to appoint senior officials for daily monitoring of the work. This pressure has kept the civic officials on their toes. “We are working hard to open the bridge at a given time. The work for launching the second girder will be undertaken in April, for which we will need to close the bridge again,” said a senior civic official.
The other work that will be carried out in the next few days includes casting, painting, construction joint work, street lighting, direction board and testing. These works are expected to be completed by February 23. The bridge was closed for vehicular and pedestrian movement on November 7, 2022, after it was declared unsafe in an audit. The bridge was completely demolished by the Western Railway in March 2023. The contractor appointed by the BMC started reconstruction work in April 2023.
However, the deadline to open one side of the bridge was extended for several reasons from May 31 to September 2023, then to Diwali, afterwards to December 2023 and February 15 to February 29. The entire bridge is expected to be operational by May 2024.
