Mumbai: Gokhale ROB demolition tender finalised in 24 hrs

Mumbai: Within 24 hours of opening, the tender for the demolition of the Gokhale Road Over Bridge (ROB) was finalised by railways on Saturday. “Tender for dismantling work of the Gokhale ROB was opened on Dec 2 and it got finalised on Dec 3 within 24 hours,” said a senior officer of the Western Railway. Pegged at the cost of Rs11.46 crore, the demolition is planned to be completed within the next three months. Subsequently, the BMC will start constructing the Andheri bridge which served as east-west connector until it was shut on Nov 7 after being declared unsafe.

“Tender for the bridge construction have been already floated by the civic body. The estimated cost of the bridge is around Rs84.72 crore,” said the BMC official. According to sources, construction work will take six-seven months. It will be a pre-fabricated structure that will be constructed in a workshop. Once it's ready, the girders of the Gokhale bridge will be assembled and launched. “The assembling of the pre-cast material at the site will begin by May 2023,” said the BMC official.

However, the contract period will be eight months. Before starting the construction work, the contractor will have to barricade the area and provide warning signals so that pedestrian movement and other utilities remain unaffected.

The BMC has fixed September 2023 deadline for completing the entire bridge, while it aims to open one side of Gokhale bridge for traffic movement by May 2023.