Mumbai News: Joint Meeting Of BMC, WR To Facilitate Work On Gokhale Bridge

Mumbai: The BMC has called a joint meeting with officials of Western Railways (WR) to facilitate the work of launching, sliding and lowering of girders on the Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge in Andheri. The work can be commenced only if WR undertakes a train block.

Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal along with local MLA Ameet Satam, and civic and railway officials, visited the bridge site on Monday. Around 28 structures affecting the movement of a crane, which was brought to assemble the girder at the bridge, were removed in September. The project has completed connecting the first girder weighing about 1,300 tonne.

“The girder has been formed by connecting the free parts at a height of about 25 meter at the site. It will be an engineering challenge to move it forward 100 meter on the railway track, then shift it to the north about 13.5 meter and then bring it down about 7.5 meter. Considering the weight of the girder, it is necessary to coordinate with the railway,” said a senior civic official.

Chahal said, “A meeting has been arranged with the railway authorities in BMC headquarters on October 27 to expedite work.” The crucial east-west connector in Andheri is closed for pedestrian and vehicular movement from November 2022. The demolition work of the railway portion of the bridge started in December last year.

Though the reconstruction work started in January, the BMC failed to keep its promise of opening one lane by May 31. The strike at a steel plant at Rourkela in May and flooding in a workshop at Ambala further delayed the delivery of steel to Mumbai. As per the new deadline, the bridge will be partially opened in the first week of December.