Mumbai: The launching of girders and completion of work including surfacing of the railway portion on the southern arm of the Andheri's Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge has been pushed back to November 15. The civic body has allowed the extension of five and half months for the contractor on Monday. So, the entire bridge will now be open for traffic only by March 31, 2025. However, the BMC has also imposed a penalty of Rs. 3 crore on the concerned contractor for the delay.
After several extensions, the northern arm of the bridge was opened on February 26. While the girder launching for the second part of the bridge was expected to be completed by May 31. But the arrival of the girder parts from Ambala, Haryana has been delayed. So, the civic authorities have sent a notice to the contractor demanding a clarification on the delay. "We have approved a delay of 107 days, which was justifiable. However, the contractor will be penalised for the unjustified delay of 59 days. As per the tender document condition, the contractor will have to pay the penalty," said a senior civic official. The extension for the girder launching schedule was approved by the additional municipal commissioner Abhijeet Bangar (projects) on Monday.
"After the steel parts of the girder arrive in Mumbai, it will be assembled and launched in November. Further, it will take three to four months to complete the approach road and other work. Now the southern arm of the bridge is expected to be opened by next year," added another official. As per the earlier plan, the entire bridge along with two lanes of the Barfiwala flyover was to be made operational by December 2024. Being reconstructed at a cost of around Rs90 crore, the 90-meter-long structure is the second-longest rail over the bridge after its Vidyavihar counterpart, which measures 99.8 meters.
The Gokhale Bridge has been closed since November 2022, after it was declared unsafe. The closure of the east-west connector has harried the commuters in Andheri. Even though the northern arm of the bridge was opened after 15 months, the commuters still faced inconveniences due to the height gap of nearly two metres between the Gokhale and CD Barfiwala flyover. The BMC has undertaken work on alignment after consulting Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The work is expected to be completed by next month.
