Mumbai: Declared unsafe in 2014, 19th-century Carnac Bridge might soon be demolished, say official sources

Between 2014, when the bridge was identified as unsafe and was closed for heavy vehicles, and August 19 this year, when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finally received a no-objection certificate from the traffic police for demolition, the project hit several roadblocks, said sources in the BMC Bridges department.

In the meantime, its fate got linked to the Hancock Bridge, the only other bridge that provides east-west connectivity in south Mumbai. The traffic police had earlier refused to give permission to carry out reconstruction work of the two bridges together, officials from the Bridges department said. If both bridges had remained un-operational, commuters would have had to take a much longer route via DN Road and P D’mello Road to get to the east side from Fort or Masjid Bunder. Reopening of the newly-constructed Hancock Bridge at Sandhurst Road for traffic on August 1 this year paved the way for the authorities to take up the demolition of Carnac.

The Carnac bridge lies between Masjid Bunder and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and goes over the central railway tracks. Bharat Gothoskar, a city-based historian, said: “It was constructed in 1868-69, providing access to the dock-side. At the time, the CSMT station building did not exist, as its construction started in 1878, and was completed after a decade, in 1888. Railway lines existed up till the Bori Bunder Railway station, which would have been somewhere near the present-day CSMT.” The historian added that while the CSMT terminus building did not exist at the time, platforms with sheds existed, and, therefore, the Carnac Bridge was constructed to provide commuters better access to the dock-side.

Ghotoskar then pointed out that the Carnac Bridge was among the first rail-over bridges to be constructed in Mumbai. While the west side had some residential population, the Carnac bunder gave access for bullock carts heading toward the docks.

Satish Thosar, the chief engineer of BMC bridges department, said: “It was closed for heavy vehicles in 2014, as it began to show signs of age, and railways informed the BMC of its condition.” Subsequently, the BMC paid the Central Railway its share in the cost for demolition of the bridge, and the Central Railway approved the general design for the reconstructed bridge.

In January 2016, the approximately 150-year-old Hancock bridge, located between the suburban railway stations of Sandhurst Road and Byculla on the Central line, was demolished during an 18-hour-long megablock. However, its reconstruction began in 2019, and was expected to be completed before the pandemic. The delay was owing to a roadblock in the alignment of the bridge, as residential buildings on either side of the road got in the way, BMC sources said.

In 2018, after the partial collapse of the Gokhale Rail overbridge in Andheri, all bridges in the city were audited by the civic body, and the Carnac bridge was again declared unsafe. It was briefly closed for all traffic in 2018, but reopened for light motor vehicles.