Mumbai: The delay in the reopening of the Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge has irked commuters in Andheri. The worried residents want Mumbai suburban guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha to intervene and direct the civic authorities to speed up the construction work.
Since the bridge work is yet to be completed, commuters will have to take either the Andheri subway route or the Captain Vinayak Gore flyover. When the subway gets flooded during heavy rains, the flyover will have to bear all the traffic. So, the residents want the BMC to speed up the work of the pumping station at the subway.
Bridge to reopen in November
The BMC had committed to opening one arm of the crucial east-west connector before the monsoon. However, last month, the civic authorities clarified that the bridge will now reopen in November since the supply of steel was affected due to a strike at the Rourkela plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd. The delay in reconstruction of the bridge has upset the residents, who have demanded that the BMC should undertake relief measures during monsoon.
Dhaval Shah, Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen's Association President, said, “The earlier deadline for Gokhale bridge was in May, which has now been postponed to November. Why doesn't the BMC give us a progress chart of the work? The civic officials are answerable to us. They are not reconstructing bridges for charity. We have approached the officials and requested a meeting with guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha.”
New bridge is being constructed at a cost of around ₹90 crore
The fabrication work of the bridge was affected after the strike in the steel plant. So, the BMC has placed an order with Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, and delivery is expected to start by the end of May. The civic authorities are expecting to open the bridge by Diwali, which is a five-month delay from the earlier date of May 31. The civic body floated tenders for reconstructing the railway portion of the Gokhale bridge on November 12, 2022. The new bridge is being constructed at a cost of around ₹90 crore.
