Mumbai: 5 infra firms bid for Gokhale Bridge work

Mumbai: Five infrastructure construction companies have shown a willingness to build the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in the tight schedule that has been chalked out so that the least inconvenience is caused to motorists. The BMC officials will now evaluate the bids and the work order will be issued in December, a civic official said.

The crucial east-west connector, the Gokhale Bridge in Andheri has been shut for pedestrian and vehicular movement since November 7. The BMC had floated tenders for the reconstruction of the bridge on November 12. The estimated cost of the bridge work is Rs84.72 crore and the deadline for submission of bids was November 25. “Three companies who submitted bids are from Mumbai and Thane, while the remaining two firms are from Gujarat and Hyderabad,” civic sources said.

The demolition of the existing bridge is expected to be completed by Western Railways by the end of March 2023. Reconstruction work will be taken up immediately so that a portion of the bridge could be reopened before May 2023. The deadline to complete the reconstruction work is eight months.

BMC's additional commissioner (projects) P Velrasu said, “It will take 6-7 months to construct the pre-fabricated bridge. Once completed, the newly-made structure will be brought from the workshop to the site. Then the girders will be assembled and launched. The assembling of the pre-cast material at the site will begin by May 2023. So that we should be able to open at least one arm of the bridge before the monsoon.”