Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri is nearing completion and one of the lanes to be opened before monsoon

The demolition of the Gopal Krishna Gokhale Bridge in Andheri is nearing completion and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that the project is well on track and one of the lanes of the bridge will be opened for vehicular and pedestrian movement before monsoon this year.

The railways department is demolishing portions of the existing structure that runs above the railway tracks, and have had called for a mega block during the intervening night of March 11 and 12 for finishing the demolition. According to officials, the railways have removed nearly 80 per cent of the existing steel girders that run above the railway tracks and the work of removing the remaining portions of the girders will be taken up by tonight.

Additional municipal commissioner (Projects) P. Velrasu, who is monitoring the work, said that the BMC is parallelly carrying out reconstruction works for the new bridge.

The BMC had awarded the work order for reconstructing this bridge in January, two months after it was shut for pedestrian and vehicular movement. Pegged at a cost of Rs 80 crore, the fabricated steel structure is being constructed at a workshop and will be brought to the project site when it is ready. It will be then assembled and launched from the piers that the BMC is building at the site.

Located between Andheri and Ville Parle, the Gokhale Bridge is a major connecting point that joins Andheri East and West. Earlier in November 2022, the BMC had written to the traffic department of the Mumbai Police, asking them to shut the bridge for vehicular movement, after an audit found out that the girders and the columns of this bridge has been degraded due to corrosion and environment degradation.