Mumbai's Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge may miss June deadline to reopen

MUMBAI: Andheri's nodal Gopal Krishna Gokhale bridge - a part of which was to reopen in June before monsoon - is unlikely to meet the deadline.
Officials have said that while they have placed an order for steel girders in Chandigarh, owing to an ongoing strike back at the steel plant, the work of fabrication may not be completed on time.
"In spite of the best efforts of BMC, due to a strike in the steel plant, the supply of steel girders could be delayed," said additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu.
Local residents, however, are worried that with this vital link being shut, driving through the area during the upcoming monsoon months will be a hassle.
Filmmaker and Juhu resident Ashoke Pandit said that during the rains traffic movement in the area could become a nightmare with the vital link remaining shut.
"However, we are at least thankful that the bridge was shut at the right time before any unfortunate incident could take place," said Pandit.
The BMC wrote to the Joint CP Traffic on November 1, last year to the close the bridge for vehicular movement as an inspection found that various bridge elements such as RCC columns, tie beams, girders, deck slabs and bearings are heavily distressed and lost its strength due to corrosion and environmental degradation. Hence the bridge is unsafe for vehicular movement, the BMC has stated.
Dhaval Shah of Lokhandwala Oshiwara Residents' Association said that the authorities ensured that tendering process and demolition were all completed well on time. "However, this delay is going to cost the area heavily as the alternate road, which is Andheri subway, always gets water logged on a heavy rain day and the other alternate route is the Captain Gore flyover which would not be able to handle this large of traffic movement. The authorities should not have committed to opening up one lane as it only kept residents hopeful," said Shah.
The BMC will be deploying additional dewatering pumps at Andheri subway this year to ensure that rain water on heavy rain days can be sucked out faster. In February this year, the BMC had held a meeting where it studied the feasibility of deploying additional pumps at Andheri subway.
On July 3, 2018, the pedestrian section of the bridge had collapsed leading to the death of two people and injuring three others.
On November 12 last year, the BMC had floated tenders for reconstructing of the railway portion of the existing Gokhale rail over bridge. The new ROB is being constructed at a cost of around Rs 90 crore. The plan was to reopen two lanes of the bridge by June 2023 while completion of the entire bridge works was targeted for December 2023.