Mumbai: The BMC has begun assembling girders for the south side of the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri. The work is anticipated to be finished by August 23. Following completion, the civic authorities plans to request night blocks from the railways to facilitate the launching of the girders. The entire bridge is expected to be fully operational by March 31, 2025.
The steel components necessary for launching the southern arm of the Gokhale Bridge arrived in Mumbai from the Ambala factory during the first week of August. The contractor has assured the civic authorities to complete assembling of girders in next two weeks. "The installation of the girder is expected to take 60 days. Following this, work on the approach road will begin immediately and is projected to take 5 to 6 months to complete," said a senior civic official.
After the girder launching is completed, the civic body will immediately undertake surfacing and concreting work. The contractor has been given a deadline by the civic body to complete these tasks by November 14. Last month, the BMC had issued a show-cause notices to both the civic executive engineer and the contractor for failing to meet the contractor’s self-imposed deadline of July 15 for material delivery. Additionally, a Rs 3-crore penalty has been imposed on the contractor.
The contractor was fined due to delays in the girder launch and the completion of work, including the surfacing of the railway portion on the southern arm of Gokhale Bridge, which was postponed to November.
Gokhale bridge an east -west connector in Andheri was closed for traffic after it was declared unsafe in structural audit. The northern arm of the Gokhale Bridge was reopened on February 26. The BMC completed partial alignment work and reopened the northern arm of the Barfiwala Flyover on July 4. The work on the southern side of the flyover will begin soon.
