Mumbai: BMC Mulls Special Measures To Align Gokhale Bridge With Barfiwala Flyover, Seeks Election Commissioner's Nod

The BMC will be preparing an estimate of the work to be carried out to align the Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge in Andheri with the C.D. Barfiwala flyover. However, if the work requires to invite a separate tender, the civic body will be requesting the Election Commissioner (EC) to grant special permission for executing the work, since lakhs of commuters are currently facing inconvenience due to the height gap between the two bridges.

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) has proposed elevating its slabs using jacks to merge the north side of Barfiwala flyover with Gokhale Bridge. However, the work can begin only after June, as no tenders are being floated by the BMC owing to the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections. On Tuesday, the civic authorities took a review of the work and instructed the engineering department to prepare a plan after studying the recommendations of the institute. 

"The engineering department will see if the work can be carried out as recommended by the institute, or do we need to make any changes to it. We will also check if this work could be included in the ongoing work at the Gokhale site, so that we would not have to invite fresh tenders. If either of the options does not work out, we will send our request to EC to get the work done as earliest as possible," said a senior civic official. 

The one arm of the Gokhale Bridge, an east-west connector in Andheri, was opened for vehicular movement from February 26. However, the commuters are still facing inconvenience since the two bridges have a height difference of nearly two metres.